It's Been A Chilly Start to 2022
We'll see a 'milder' end of January today as the mercury flirts with the freezing mark. Enjoy it because another Siberian slap arrives Tuesday with temps tumbling into the teens late afternoon. Feels like temps AM Wednesday will be in the -10s to -20s range. Cold enough for any local groundhogs. Check the blog for more details. -Todd Nelson
Last weekend's Nor'easter was a doozy with widespread 1ft. to 2ft. snowfall amounts. Some of the heaviest tallies were found on Long Island into eastern Massachusetts and across Maine. The highest amounts were in eastern Massachusetts, where some 30" tallies were found.
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Continued Quiet Weather
Here's the weather outlook closer to home through the end of next week. An area of low pressure will scoot along the international border midweek with areas of light snow across northern MN. Winds will quickly switch to the NW with much colder temps in place on Wednesday and through the rest of the week.
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Snow Depth
The latest snow depth reports show a fairly decent base across the region. The Metro was reporting around 7" as of Saturday, but has you head north, there are some double digit reports. According to the MN DNR Snowmobile and cross-country ski trails are generally reported to be in good to very good conditions across the northern half of the state. Trails in the southern half of the state are reported to poor condition with little to now snow on the ground there.
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Seasonal Snowfall So Far
Here's a look at how much snow we've seen so far this season. Note the Twin Cities has seen nearly 33", which is nearly +4.0" above average. Grand Forks, ND has seen nearly 40" of snow, which is nearly 1ft above average! Heading south into South Dakota, many locations there are below average and more than 1ft below average in Pierre and Huron. Folks in southern Wisconsin are also nearly 1ft below average, including Madison and Milwaukee.
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Mild End of January, Then Cold Start to February
Here's the 850mb temp anomaly through the week ahead. Note that temps will be quite mild on Monday with much colder temps in place during the second half of the week.
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Monday Weather Outlook
The weather outlook for Minneapolis on Monday shows above average temps in place with highs approaching the freezing mark by the afternoon.
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Meteograms for Minneapolis
The hourly temps for Minneapolis on Monday show temps starting in teens above zero, which will feel very warm compared to where we've been. High temps will warm to around the freezing mark by the afternoon with southeasterly wind gusts approaching 20mph.
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Wind Chill Values Monday
Feels like temps for Minneapolis on Monday won't be as cold as it has been as of late. Feels like temps will be in the single digits in the morning to near 20F by the afternoon.
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Weather Outlook For Monday
High temps across the region on Monday will be running nearly 10F to 15F above average across the region. Note that temps in South Dakota will approach 50F, which will be nearly +20F above average for the end of January.
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Extended Temperature Outlook For Minneapolis
The extended temperature outlook for Minneapolis over the next several days shows temps warming to near the freezing mark on Monday, which will be nearly +10F above average. Temps will tumble through the day on Tuesday as a cold from pushes south of the region. The second half of the week will be MUCH colder with highs running nearly -10F to -20F below average.
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Extended Weather Outlook For Minneapolis
Monday will be pretty warm for the last day of January with highs warming to near the freezing mark. A cold front pushes through on Tuesday with falling temps and perhaps a few flurries. The second half of the week will be cold with a light snow chance Friday into Saturday.
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Extended Temperature Outlook For Minneapolis
According to the ECMWF & GFS extended temperature outlook, will be mild at the beginning of the week, but will be much colder through the first few days of February. However, both the GFS and ECMWF show a mild trend moving in by next weekend. According to the GFS, the middle part of the month will be much colder once again.
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8 to 14 Day Temperature Outlook
According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, the 8 to 14 day temperature outlook shows below average temps from the Great Lakes to the Southern US. Meanwhile, temps in the Midwest and High Plain will be above average.
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8 to 14 Day Precipitation Outlook
According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, weather conditions look pretty quiet across the Wester and Central US.
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It's Been A Chilly Start to 2022
By Todd Nelson, filling in for Douglas
Saturday was a snowy day across New England. A powerful Nor'easter dumped nearly 2ft of snow in Boston, MA and Islip, NY with the golden snow shovel award going to Stoughton, MA measuring 30.9 inches. An impressive 81mph wind gust was reported in Yarmouth, MA with widespread power outages, leaving many in the dark on Sunday. Prior to this weekend's snow , many locations were running well below average in seasonal snowfall. Now, Boston and Islip, to name a few, are more than 1ft above average!
Closer to home, MSP has picked up 10.5 inches since the beginning of the new year, which is pretty typical for January. However, the average temp is running nearly 6 degrees below average, good enough for the 48th coldest start to any year on record.
We'll see a 'milder' end of January today as the mercury flirts with the freezing mark. Enjoy it because another Siberian slap arrives Tuesday with temps tumbling into the teens late afternoon. Feels like temps AM Wednesday will be in the -10s to -20s range. Cold enough for any local groundhogs.
Extended Forecast
MONDAY: Milder with intervals of sunshine. Winds: SE 10-15. High: 33.
MONDAY NIGHT: Mostly Cloudy and quiet. Winds: SSE 10-15. Low: 26.
TUESDAY: Windy & turning Colder. Light snow. Winds: WNW 15-30. High: 28 & falling.
WEDNESDAY: Partly sunny and cold. Winds: WNW 5-10. Wake-up: -2. High: 8.
THURSDAY: Icy sunshine. Winds: N 5. Wake-up: -10. High: 5.
FRIDAY: Cold with light snow. Winds: SSE 5-10. Wake-up: -8. High: 13.
SATURDAY: Breezy & feeling warmer. Few flakes. Winds: SSE 10-15. Wake-up: 3. High: 28.
SUNDAY: Mostly cloudy. Chance of light snow. Winds: NW 10-15. Wake-up: 15. High: 20.
This Day in Weather History
January 31st
1893: The temperature drops 40 degrees in five hours during a blizzard at Park Rapids.
Average High/Low for Minneapolis
January 31st
Average High: 25F (Record: 46F set in 1995, 2009)
Average Low: 8F (Record: -27F set in 1887)
Record Rainfall: 1.16" set in 1881
Record Snowfall: 6.2" set in 1908
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Sunrise/Sunset Times for Minneapolis
January 31st
Sunrise: 7:33am
Sunset: 5:19pm
Hours of Daylight: ~9 hours & 46 minutes
Daylight GAINED since yesterday: ~ 2 minute & 32 seconds
Daylight GAINED since Winter Solstice (December 21st): ~ 1 Hour
Moon Phase for January 31st at Midnight
0.0 Days Since New Moon
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National High Temps Monday
The weather outlook on Monday show above average temps across the Central US with high nearly +10F above average. However, folks in the Northern New England States will be running well below average. Also, the West Coast will be running below average by nearly -5F.
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National Weather Outlook
The weather outlook into through midweek shows a large storm system developing Tuesday into Wednesday across the Central US. Areas of heavy rain will develop across the Southern US with heavy snow developing in the Central US.
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Extended Precipitation Outlook
According to NOAA's Weather Prediction Center, areas of heavy precipitation will be found across parts of the Southern US with several inches of precipitation possible in the Ohio Valley, Tennessee Valley and Gulf Coast States.
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Extended Snowfall Potential
Here's the extended snowfall potential through the first several days of February. Note that we could be looking at a band of heavy snow across the Central US and into the Great Lakes/Northern New England States.
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Climate Stories
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"Signs of an Unknown Solar 'Tsunami' Have Been Discovered Deep Inside Earth's Ice"
"Deep beneath the ice in Greenland and Antarctica, researchers have found signs of an enormous solar 'tsunami' that once crashed against Earth's atmosphere more than 9,000 years ago. This ancient superstorm was triggered by a wave of hot plasma and magnetism from the Sun, and it is significantly larger than anything we have recorded in recent history. The findings have got scientists concerned about our ability to predict when the Sun is going to let loose next. Solar storms on Earth occur every few years, when the Sun's activity is at a peak, but this ancient superstorm is on a whole other scale, and it appears to have struck during a quiet phase of the solar cycle."
'This 16-acre Atlanta park was built to flood"
In the Vine City neighborhood outside of downtown Atlanta, a few city blocks faced a persistent threat. Filled with the modest homes of the neighborhood's primarily Black community, this area was the low point in a 150-acre drainage shed. During storms, when water from the entire neighborhood rushed down into the combined sewer and stormwater system, the area would regularly flood. It got so bad that by the early 2000s, the city decided to buy up the most vulnerable 60 homes and tear them down. With an average annual rainfall of about 50 inches, the problem was not necessarily solved. So the city of Atlanta and the Trust for Public Land teamed up to find a new use for the space. They hired global design, planning, and landscape architecture firm HDR to design a park for the land—the kind of open space that wouldn't upend people's lives if it got a little too wet.
"Ancient solar storm smashed Earth at the wrong part of the sun's cycle — and scientists are concerned"
"An extremely powerful solar storm pummeled our planet 9,200 years ago, leaving permanent scars on the ice buried deep below Greenland and Antarctica. A new study of those ancient ice samples has found that this previously unknown storm is one of the strongest outbursts of solar weather ever detected and would have crippled modern communications systems if it had hit Earth today. But perhaps most surprising, the massive storm appears to have hit during a solar minimum, the point during the sun's 11-year cycle when solar outbursts are typically much less common, according to the study, published Jan. 11 in the journal Nature Communications. Because of this unexpected discovery, the study researchers are concerned that devastating solar storms could hit when we least expect them — and that Earth might not be prepared when the next big one arrives."
Thanks for checking in and don't forget to follow me on Twitter @TNelsonWX
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But next week will end with comfortable 60s and 70s.