Highs in the 50s this week for Twin Cities? It's been many months

Trick or treaters were just coming out of their sugar high the last time the temperature in the Twin Cities was at least 50 degrees.

And if the current forecast holds true later this week, this stretch of sub-50 days will rank among the 10 longest in record metro history, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

The official Twin Cities high temperature last hit 50 on Nov. 1, according to the NWS. That's good for 135 straight days.

The weather service so far is calling for something at 50 or above no sooner than Friday. That would push the sub-50 streak to 140 days, a length not reached since March 1956.

Atop that sub-50 list at 170 days without a 50-degree reading is April 1874.

High temperatures on Sunday and Monday are forecast to not even crack the 40s, stalling out in the upper 30s, the NWS said. Then look for highs in the 40s Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before Friday's relatively balmy 52, with light winds.

Of course, those above-freezing highs also mean further melting of the current snowpack.

"It looks like an orderly melt though," the weather service notes in its long-term outlook, "with nighttime lows falling back below freezing and dew points remaining in the 20s and 30s.":

Also on the bright side of flooding concerns, other than a slight chance of snow Sunday, there is no precipitation in the NWS crystal ball all through the week.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482