Not A Lot Of Sunshine The Next Few Days

So, I'll apologize - the heavy snow stayed farther south and east of the metro, so my 4-7" snow totals I called for yesterday fell a little short. At the same time, I'm glad I had to remove less snow than that off my driveway! There were some 4" totals reported in the southern metro as of Thursday morning, and as of 6 AM Thursday MSP Airport had picked up 2" (which increased to 3.1" at Noon). The top total in southern Minnesota was Byron, which saw 6.6" of snow fall as of 9:55 AM. Around the same time there was a report northwest of Rochester of 6.4". You only had to go south into Iowa along Highway 18 (Rock Valley to Spencer to Mason City) to find totals in the 7-9" range.

Above is a listing of the top 50 snowiest winters in the Twin Cities. With the snow through Noon at MSP, we're sitting at the 46th snowiest on record.

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As we head into Friday, it'll be another day with mainly cloudy skies and fairly steady temperatures in the mid to upper 20s in the metro. I can't rule out a few peeks of sun - but they'll likely be fleeting.

There will be better chances for glimpses of sun out in western Minnesota and along parts of the North Shore on Friday, but you'll still only be able to call it a mix of sun and clouds. Otherwise, clouds reign across much of the state for the last day of the work week with highs in the teens and 20s.

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For those hoping for some sunshine this weekend, I don't have a lot of good news for you. It'll be a fairly cloudy weekend (can't rule out peeks of sun, but there won't likely be too many in the metro) with highs in the mid-20s. Low 30s return for Monday, but the clouds remain and we may even watch for a few flurries/light snow showers by late in the day.

Forecast loop 6 AM Monday to 6 AM Tuesday

As a cold front sweeps through Monday and Monday Night, some light snow will be possible. It currently doesn't look like it would add up to much, with maybe a half an inch across parts of northern Minnesota.

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Highs through the weekend and into early next week will continue to be around/above average in the 20s and even low 30s with mainly cloudy conditions expected.

However, it looks like we will see a drop in temperatures toward the end of next week into the first part of February. How low is up for question - but it would definitely be cooler than what we have mostly seen recently.

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Good News In The Sunlight Department
By D.J. Kayser, filling in for Paul Douglas

Despite the continued signs of winter all around us (lots of snow on the ground, chilly air... you get the drill), I do have some good news. Tuesday marked our first sunset at or after 5 PM since time "fell backwards" in early November. Even better? As of Thursday, we are gaining at least two minutes of daylight daily. Gotta try and focus on the good rather than all the bad that is constantly spoon-fed to us by "breaking news" alerts on TV and our phones.

With yesterday's snow, we have now matched our yearly average, and this snow season will go down as one of the top 50 snowiest on record for MSP. Reminder: we still have what is typically our third and fourth snowiest months of the year on record to go - in, respectively, February and March.

Quiet weather is expected through the weekend, with only occasional puffs of snow next week. While the daylight is increasing, we won't see a lot of the sun this next week. Highs remain around/above average through mid-week, before teens try to make an extended return into February.

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D.J.'s Extended Twin Cities Forecast

FRIDAY: A few peeks of sun. Wake up 19. High 25. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind NW 5-10 mph.

SATURDAY: Cloudy. Storm passes to our south. Wake up 16. High 28. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind SW 5-10 mph.

SUNDAY: Numerous shades of gray. Wake up 17. High 25. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind SW 5-10 mph.

MONDAY: A few snowflakes late. Wake up 16. High 30. Chance of precipitation 20%. Wind SW 5-10 mph.

TUESDAY: More clouds than sun. Isolated flurry? Wake up 19. High 27. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind SW 5-10 mph.

WEDNESDAY: Overcast skies. Wake up 15. High 26. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind NW 5-10 mph.

THURSDAY: Light snow with a clipper system. Wake up 11. High 21. Chance of precipitation 20%. Wind NW 5-10 mph.

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Minneapolis Weather Almanac And Sun Data
January 20th

*Length Of Day: 9 hours, 19 minutes, and 40 seconds
*Daylight GAINED Since Yesterday: 2 minutes and 3 seconds

*When do we see 10 Hours of Daylight?: February 6th (10 hours, 1 minutes, 13 seconds)
*When is Sunrise at/before 7:30 AM?: February 3rd (7:30 AM)
*When is Sunset at/after 5:30 PM?: February 8th (5:30 PM)

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This Day in Weather History
January 20th

1982: Just over 17 inches of snow falls in the Twin Cities. Amazingly, it was to be outdone two days later.

1917: 16 inches of snow falls in the Twin Cities.

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The system that has been impacting the central U.S. is moving into New England Friday, bringing snow and a mix of rain and snow. Meanwhile, a new low will start to move off the Rockies, bringing snow to parts of the Central Plains.

The heaviest additional snow from Thursday evening into Saturday will be in both New England (where 3-7" is possible) and in southwestern Colorado into the Central Plains with the next system (3-9").

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Temperatures on Greenland haven't been this warm in at least 1,000 years, scientists report

More from CNN: "As humans fiddle with the planet's thermostat, scientists are piecing together Greenland's history by drilling ice cores to analyze how the climate crisis has impacted the island country over the years. The further down they drilled, the further they went back in time, allowing them to separate which temperature fluctuations were natural and which were human-caused. After years of research on the Greenland ice sheet ... scientists reported Wednesday in the journal Nature that temperatures there have been the warmest in at least the last 1,000 years – the longest amount of time their ice cores could be analyzed to. And they found that between 2001 and 2011, it was on average 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than it was during the 20th century."

California's next flood could destroy one of its most diverse cities. Will lawmakers try to save it?

More from Grist: "In early 1862, a storm of biblical proportions struck California, dropping more than 120 inches of rain and snow on the state over two months. The entire state flooded, but nowhere was the deluge worse than in the Central Valley, a gash of fertile land that runs down the middle of the state between two mountain ranges. In the spring, as melting snow mixed with torrential rain, the valley transformed into "a perfect sea," as one observer put it, vanishing beneath 30 feet of water that poured from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. People rowed through town streets on canoes. A quarter of all the cows in the state drowned. It took months for the water to drain out. More than 150 years later, climate scientists say the state is due for a repeat of that massive storm. A growing body of research has found that global warming is increasing the likelihood of a monster storm that could inundate the Central Valley once again, causing what one study from UCLA and the National Atmospheric Center called "historically unprecedented surface runoff" in the region. Not only would this runoff destroy thousands of homes, it would also ravage a region that serves as the nation's foremost agricultural breadbasket. The study found that global warming has already increased the likelihood of such a storm by 234 percent."

Fake hurricanes and oil protests: How the Fed will test banks

More from E&E News: "The Federal Reserve is requiring the largest American banks to assess how a major hurricane in the northeastern United States would affect their real estate portfolios as part of a broader regulatory exercise to measure the financial threats of climate change. The Fed released new details Tuesday about its anticipated "pilot climate scenario analysis," which will focus on the banking system's vulnerability to intensifying extreme weather events and business disruptions from the clean energy transition. The central bank said six major lenders — JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. — have until the end of July to report how they would perform under a range of future climate scenarios."

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Thanks for checking in and have a great day!

- D.J. Kayser