Here's the weather outlook from AM Monday to AM Sunday, which shows active weather as we head through the first few days of March. Note that after a quiet Monday and last day of February, weather conditions turn more unsettled through the rest of the week and weekend ahead. A much larger storm appears to be developing later in the week and weekend ahead with a messy mix. It's still too early to get specific, but stay tuned as the week progresses.

The weather outlook for Minneapolis on Monday shows quiet weather in place for the last day of February. Highs will warm into the mid/upper 30s with partly cloudy skies in the afternoon.

The hourly temps for Minneapolis on Monday show temps starting around 20F in the morning and topping out in the mid/upper 30s by the afternoon. West to southwesterly winds will blow around 15mph through the day.

Feels like temps for Minneapolis on Monday will be in the 10s in the morning, but will warm to near the freezing mark by the afternoon.

Monday temperatures will be close to average in the central part of the state, but there will be lingering chilly temps in the Northeast with highs running nearly -10F below average. Highs in the southwestern part of the state will be much warmer with temps approaching the 50F mark by the afternoon.

The extended temperature outlook for Minneapolis over the next several days shows near average temps over the next several days with highs warming into the 30s.

The extended weather outlook through the week ahead shows somewhat active weather developing with a bigger storm in place later this week. The weekend storm could bring a wide range of precipitation potential.

According to the ECMWF & GFS extended temperature outlook, readings will be quite a bit warmer than they were at the end of February. There appears to be a string of 20s and 30s with a couple of near 40F highs possible.

According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, the 8 to 14 day temperature outlook shows colder temps across the western us, but cooler than average temps will be in place across the Western US.

According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, the 8-14 Day precipitation outlook shows more active weather possible across the Central US.

Today is the last day of Meteorological Winter, which typically marks the coldest 3 months on average for the entire year in the northern hemisphere. Despite a slightly warmer than average December, January and February were well below average. Believe it or not, folks in the Twin Cities shivered through the one of the top 40 coldest starts to any year on record and the coldest start to any year since 2014.

The extended forecast over the next 7 to 10 days keeps us milder with a string of 20s and 30s in the forecast. However, March appears to be coming in like a lion with several days of unsettled weather. A series of clippers dives through this week with a light wintry mix. A much larger storm system arrives Friday with a messy mix of wintry precipitation through the weekend. It's too early to get specific, but it looks like a classic March tourney storm. Stay tuned.

Keep in mind that we're less than 2 weeks away from the time change and overly 3 weeks away from the Vernal Equinox. Spring is on its way. Enjoy winter while you can!

MONDAY: Partly sunny & mild. Winds: WSW 5-10. High: 37.

MONDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy. Winds: WNW 5. Low: 22.

TUESDAY: Mostly cloudy. Chance of light snow. Winds: NW 5. High: 33.

WEDNESDAY: Cloudy with a light mix possible. Winds: NNE 5-10. Wake-up: 21. High: 35.

THURSDAY: Partly sunny with a wintry mix. Winds: E 5-10. Wake-up: 20. High: 31.

FRIDAY: Cloudy. Rain, sleet, snow developing. Winds: ESE 10-20. Wake-up: 21. High: 33.

SATURDAY: Mix to snow. Accumulations possible. Winds: NNW 10-20. Wake-up: 26. High: 35.

SUNDAY: Lingering snow. Some clearing late. Winds: WNW 7-12. Wake-up: 25. High: 30.

February 28th

1981: Ice is out on Lake Minnetonka. Boats are enjoying the early thaw.

February 28th

Average High: 34F (Record: 57F set in 1932)

Average Low: 18F (Record: -26F set in 1962)

Record Rainfall: 0.70" set in 2012)

Record Snowfall: 8.0" set in 1907

February 28th

Sunrise: 6:51am

Sunset: 5:59pm

Hours of Daylight: ~11 hours & 07 minutes

Daylight GAINED since yesterday: ~ 3 minute & 05 seconds

Daylight GAINED since Winter Solstice (December 21st): ~ 2 Hour & 21 Minutes

1.4 Days Before New Moon

The weather outlook on Monday shows below average temps across the Northeastern US, but milder temps will continue across the Southwestern US.

Weather conditions through midweek shows areas of rain and snow across the northern tier of the nation.

According to NOAA's Weather Prediction Center, areas of heavy precipitation will be found across the Upper Midwest and the Pacific Northwest

Here's the ECMWF extended snowfall outlook through the week ahead, which shows areas of heavy snow across the northern tier of the nation and the Western US.

"An underwater volcano in the South Pacific erupted last month and shattered two records simultaneously: The volcanic plume reached greater heights than any eruption ever captured in the satellite record, and the eruption generated an unparalleled number of lightning strikes — almost 590,000 over the course of three days, Reuters reported. "The combination of volcanic heat and the amount of superheated moisture from the ocean made this eruption unprecedented. It was like hyper-fuel for a mega-thunderstorm," Kristopher Bedka, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center who specializes in studying extreme storms, said in a statement from the NASA Earth Observatory. "The plume went 2.5 times higher than any thunderstorm we have ever observed, and the eruption generated an incredible amount of lightning."

See more from Space HERE:

"During COVID's first wave, the streets of New York and other major cities became eerily empty. Mournful sirens replaced the usual bustle and din. But urban dwellers also heard something new: an abundance of birdsong. During walks outside—the only safe respite beyond their apartments—they breathed cleaner air. Lockdowns had meant fewer cars on the roads, and the effects were unmissable. Levels of nitrogen dioxide—a by-product of fossil fuels burned in cars and in electricity generation—were 30 percent lower along the I-95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston in March 2020 compared with previous years. Come summer, people sat at outdoor extensions of restaurants built in parking zones and moved around on newly added bike lanes. These incidental adaptations to the pandemic allowed residents to experience the benefits of shifting away from the "car is king" status quo in a way that policy proposals for climate-friendly infrastructure never could, explains Christian Brand, an environmental scientist with the Transport Studies Unit at the University of Oxford. Now, he says, "they know what's possible."

See more from Scientific American HERE:

"Scientists at a nuclear fusion lab in the UK just broke the world record for the amount of energy produced in a single fusion reaction. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly, we ask two experts what this means, and how long it'll take before we can switch on the world's first nuclear fusion power plant. And we talk to a social psychologist about new research into the societal pressure some people feel to be happy. Scientists first demonstrated the ability to fuse two atoms in lab experiments in the 1930s. Nuclear science has come a long way since then, but we still haven't managed to harness the energy produced by nuclear fusion to generate electricity. In early February, scientists at the Joint European Torus (JET) lab in Oxfordshire in the UK announced they'd broken the world record for the amount of energy produced in a nuclear fusion experiment. They produced 59 megajoules of heat energy in a single fusion "shot" that lasted for five seconds. This doubled the previous world record set by JET in 1997, but was still only enough to heat about 60 kettles of water."

See more from The Conversation HERE: