Douglas: A taste of December with cold and snow

I’m mystified. Flummoxed. Gobsmacked. You’re telling a Minnesotan it’s late November and it’s starting to feel like winter? That should be the opposite of breaking news.

Yes, our weather often stinks, but after the warmest start to any autumn on record I can’t remember a year with so many sunny, lukewarm, beautiful days, despite the seventh-wettest summer on record. It’s almost been too nice, and now reality will feel like a cold slap across the face.

Welcome to the coldest day since March 27, when the MSP high was a brisk 28 degrees. A period of wrap-around flurries is likely today. The ground is still relatively mild, and daytime highs hold just above 32 degrees. Even so, a coating — even an inch — may accumulate by late afternoon/evening. Snow on Nov. 20? Outrageous!

Windchills dip into the teens Wednesday night with daytime highs mostly in the 30s into Thanksgiving week. A few flurries, but no big travel-busting storms into early December, although it will certainly be cold enough for snow. Winter is late, but it’s coming.