Minnesota WeatherTalk

Looking Back at the Snowstorm of January 22nd: Over the weekend just ahead of the January 22nd snow storm, many Minnesota communities reported record high temperatures as sunny skies and southerly winds were prevalent across many parts of the state. Temperatures climbed into the 40s F in many areas of the state, including 44 degrees F at Moose Lake and 45 degrees F at Brainerd (on the 20th), and where snow cover was absent or sparse even greater temperatures were reported like 46 degrees F at Worthington and 48 degrees F at Browns Valley on the 21st. In addition in many areas of the state dew points climbed into the mid 30s F, near record high territory for late January, and indicating a high amount of water vapor in the air mass over the state. This helped to set up a significant snowfall across many parts of southern Minnesota on January 22nd, and especially across the Twin Cities Metro Area. During the peak of the storm, roughly 1pm to 6pm, maximum snowfall accumulation rates ...

Patterns of cold temperature in January: Many citizens have said “enough with the cold already” bring on some thawing temperatures. Well we are in the midst of our 2nd January thaw (bearing in mind the first one was over January 8-11). The first half of the month was dominated by cold temperatures with two-thirds of the days reporting cooler than normal values as well as numerous subzero nights. Overall temperatures during the first two weeks were 4 to 6 degrees cooler than average. Dozens of climate stations have reported -30 degrees F or colder so far this month, while Embarrass, Cotton, Ely, and Walker have reported -40 degrees F or colder. In fact Minnesota has reported the nation’s coldest temperature on seven dates so far this month. Bear in mind the cold aberration is unusual for us in that since 2002 two-thirds of all Januarys have been warmer than normal across the state, and four among the ten warmest in history. For the Twin Cities the first half of January is the ...

 Cold Start to 2018: Over the first four days of January most Minnesota climate observers were reporting temperatures that ranged from 15 to 20 degrees F colder than normal, as nearly all parts of the state are seeing overnight temperatures that are subzero. Since December 8, 2017, Minnesota has reported the coldest temperature in the nation on 13 dates with Walker, Kabetogama, Cotton, Camp Norris, and Embarrass all reporting minimum temperatures of -40°F or colder. In fact over the 11 days since December 25th the Twin Cities temperatures have been subzero on 10 nights, which has only happened one other time in history, December 25, 1886 to January 4, 1887. This is very rare statistically to see cold weather dominate so consistently this time of year. The Minnesota State Climatology Office has updated the Winter Misery Index for the Twin Cities using the climate data since October of 2017 up through January 5, 2018. The score so far is just 22 points, with 20 points coming...