50s and rain? No it's not spring, it's February
Due to the warm weather, most of the ice at Pearl Park's ice rink began to melt on Feb. 1.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
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It may be cloudier in parts of the state Wednesday, but the record warmth this February isn’t done with us yet.
MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner spoke to MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about these record highs, and our chances of it feeling a bit more like winter this week.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: We're going to talk about the weather right now. Yes, we still have this record of warmth that we're dealing with here in February. And the gush of warm air, that's not done with us yet. But things may be changing here in the next day or so. MPR Chief Meteorologist, Paul Huttner is back to talk about these record highs and the chances of it feeling a little bit more winter this week. How are you doing?
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, I'm doing great. How are you? Welcome to our Kansas City winter.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, I know it. I looked at today's forecast early in the morning and I thought to myself, upper 50s really! Like today, in some places?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah and we had 57 yesterday in the Twin Cities. That not only broke the record, it broke it by six degrees. Cathy, that's a lot when you're talking about breaking a record. Usually it's a degree or two, maybe three. Now today's record is 53. I think we'll get there. We're at 47 right now. Just ticked up one more degree in the Twin Cities. We've got the clouds around.
But there are some breaks in Western Minnesota. If we get an even an hour of partly sunny skies, the temperature can shoot up into the 50s real easily today. And then the record for tomorrow is 50 and we'll have clouds and rain around. But I think we'll get there. Cathy, today is the 6th, 50 degree or warmer day in the past 10 days. That is just unprecedented for late January, early February.
It's been just an incredible run and did I mention we're running 20 degrees warmer than normal so far this month.
CATHY WURZER: I just keep shaking my head. I don't even know what to do anymore. Just keep shaking shaking my head.
PAUL HUTTNER: I don't either. Yeah.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah. And it's just the mud season has arrived early, which is so unattractive if you have a dog or any other animal that's outside. You mentioned rain and I saw a little shower skitter through downtown, Saint Paul here. What are the chances for any moisture, rain or snow or both?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, pretty good. You mentioned, maybe a spotty shower or 2:00, today. Tonight, they'll increase especially across Western Minnesota and then tomorrow scattered showers on and off throughout the day. Cathy, we might even see or hear some thunder tomorrow. There's a parameter of severe weather, thunder parameter that puts us right on the verge of a thunderstorm tomorrow.
Nothing severe. But 52, I think for the high in the Twin Cities about a quarter of an inch of rain for many of us. Maybe an inch up in northern Minnesota and yeah, a couple inches of snow possible in far northern Minnesota. Especially, tomorrow night into Friday. And then as you mentioned, we get back to some winter like temperatures. Breezy and cold on Friday, 37 for the high in the Twin Cities, 30s right through the weekend. Then overnight lows in the 20s.
So at least we'll be getting back to some seasonably colder air here as we move through the weekend.
CATHY WURZER: OK, we should have had the Super Bowl here this weekend. Remember, when it was here before.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yes.
CATHY WURZER: Oh, yeah, it's OK. So by the way, I have to ask you this, what is a cross quarter day? Didn't we have one this week?
PAUL HUTTNER: We did on Sunday February 4th. Now these are the little things Cathy. The small victories in life that I like to look at. The cross quarter day is the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, that happened Sunday. What that means for me is that the darkest three months of the year are now behind us. So the brightest nine months are ahead and we're gaining daylight quickly now.
Even though these days have been cloudy. Gaining three minutes a day, starting next week. So we're at about 2:45, two minutes 45 seconds a day right now. And our sunset hits 5:30 tomorrow. Cathy, you notice those brighter evenings? It'll hit 6:00 by the 29th of February, our leap day this year. So we're really getting daylight quickly. We're moving towards spring even though the weather has felt like spring, the daylight is catching up.
CATHY WURZER: I love how you look for the silver lining in any Cloud. That's fantastic.
PAUL HUTTNER: You have to. In this climate, you got to do it.
CATHY WURZER: You're right. Climate Cast, what are you going to talk about this week?
PAUL HUTTNER: So Minnesota is establishing something called a green bank. Well, what is that. It's to fund clean energy and energy efficiency projects. In Minnesota, we'll be talking with someone from the Minnesota Department of Commerce about that. About what it means and what projects might get funded. That's on Climate Cast tomorrow. All things considered with Tom Cryan between 3:00 and 6:00 PM.
CATHY WURZER: All right. I hope you have a good day today.
PAUL HUTTNER: You too. Thanks so much, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: You too. MPR's Chief Meteorologist, Paul Huttner. You can always stay up to date with Minnesota weather. Just go to the Updraft blog at mprnews.org.
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, I'm doing great. How are you? Welcome to our Kansas City winter.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, I know it. I looked at today's forecast early in the morning and I thought to myself, upper 50s really! Like today, in some places?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah and we had 57 yesterday in the Twin Cities. That not only broke the record, it broke it by six degrees. Cathy, that's a lot when you're talking about breaking a record. Usually it's a degree or two, maybe three. Now today's record is 53. I think we'll get there. We're at 47 right now. Just ticked up one more degree in the Twin Cities. We've got the clouds around.
But there are some breaks in Western Minnesota. If we get an even an hour of partly sunny skies, the temperature can shoot up into the 50s real easily today. And then the record for tomorrow is 50 and we'll have clouds and rain around. But I think we'll get there. Cathy, today is the 6th, 50 degree or warmer day in the past 10 days. That is just unprecedented for late January, early February.
It's been just an incredible run and did I mention we're running 20 degrees warmer than normal so far this month.
CATHY WURZER: I just keep shaking my head. I don't even know what to do anymore. Just keep shaking shaking my head.
PAUL HUTTNER: I don't either. Yeah.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah. And it's just the mud season has arrived early, which is so unattractive if you have a dog or any other animal that's outside. You mentioned rain and I saw a little shower skitter through downtown, Saint Paul here. What are the chances for any moisture, rain or snow or both?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, pretty good. You mentioned, maybe a spotty shower or 2:00, today. Tonight, they'll increase especially across Western Minnesota and then tomorrow scattered showers on and off throughout the day. Cathy, we might even see or hear some thunder tomorrow. There's a parameter of severe weather, thunder parameter that puts us right on the verge of a thunderstorm tomorrow.
Nothing severe. But 52, I think for the high in the Twin Cities about a quarter of an inch of rain for many of us. Maybe an inch up in northern Minnesota and yeah, a couple inches of snow possible in far northern Minnesota. Especially, tomorrow night into Friday. And then as you mentioned, we get back to some winter like temperatures. Breezy and cold on Friday, 37 for the high in the Twin Cities, 30s right through the weekend. Then overnight lows in the 20s.
So at least we'll be getting back to some seasonably colder air here as we move through the weekend.
CATHY WURZER: OK, we should have had the Super Bowl here this weekend. Remember, when it was here before.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yes.
CATHY WURZER: Oh, yeah, it's OK. So by the way, I have to ask you this, what is a cross quarter day? Didn't we have one this week?
PAUL HUTTNER: We did on Sunday February 4th. Now these are the little things Cathy. The small victories in life that I like to look at. The cross quarter day is the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, that happened Sunday. What that means for me is that the darkest three months of the year are now behind us. So the brightest nine months are ahead and we're gaining daylight quickly now.
Even though these days have been cloudy. Gaining three minutes a day, starting next week. So we're at about 2:45, two minutes 45 seconds a day right now. And our sunset hits 5:30 tomorrow. Cathy, you notice those brighter evenings? It'll hit 6:00 by the 29th of February, our leap day this year. So we're really getting daylight quickly. We're moving towards spring even though the weather has felt like spring, the daylight is catching up.
CATHY WURZER: I love how you look for the silver lining in any Cloud. That's fantastic.
PAUL HUTTNER: You have to. In this climate, you got to do it.
CATHY WURZER: You're right. Climate Cast, what are you going to talk about this week?
PAUL HUTTNER: So Minnesota is establishing something called a green bank. Well, what is that. It's to fund clean energy and energy efficiency projects. In Minnesota, we'll be talking with someone from the Minnesota Department of Commerce about that. About what it means and what projects might get funded. That's on Climate Cast tomorrow. All things considered with Tom Cryan between 3:00 and 6:00 PM.
CATHY WURZER: All right. I hope you have a good day today.
PAUL HUTTNER: You too. Thanks so much, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: You too. MPR's Chief Meteorologist, Paul Huttner. You can always stay up to date with Minnesota weather. Just go to the Updraft blog at mprnews.org.
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