Minnesota Now with Nina Moini

As temperatures climb out of a deep freeze, is a January thaw on the horizon?

ice forms over rocks
Ice forms over rocks near Lester River bridge on Lake Superior Tuesday, in Duluth.
Erica Dischino for MPR News

After an arctic freeze across the state more seasonal temperatures returned to Minnesota Wednesday. MPR chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joins Minnesota Now host Nina Moini with information on how cold it got and the weather to come.

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Audio transcript

NINA MOINI: After an arctic freeze across the state, more seasonal temperatures are returning. I know. I am among the people who hopes that the coldest air is behind us, but of course, we don't know. NPR's chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joins us now. Thanks for being here, Paul.

PAUL HUTTNER: Oh, it's my pleasure. And we need you this week, Nina. Didn't you do that show called The Warming House over on The Current?

NINA MOINI: [LAUGHS]

PAUL HUTTNER: We need that.

NINA MOINI: I did. Oh, I know. I wish we could bring it back. I wish everyone was able to stay warm. It's just been so nasty. And of course, we don't know if that's the end of it. But do you feel like the coldest weather is behind us, Paul?

PAUL HUTTNER: I am 93.6% sure that we've seen the coldest temperatures of the year here in the Twin Cities, maybe not up north, but in the Twin Cities. We hit 19 below this week. That's the coldest in four years, Nina.

NINA MOINI: Wow.

PAUL HUTTNER: Valentine's Day of 2021 was the last time we were that cold. And it did hit 20 below in some of the western and northern suburbs and 40s below up around Lake Kabetogama in northern Minnesota. Now, that's an important number because those little emerald ash borer and pine bark beetle larvae, it's like a 98% mortality rate. So the trees--

NINA MOINI: Wow.

PAUL HUTTNER: --love this kind of cold in Minnesota.

NINA MOINI: OK, well, good for the trees, I suppose.

[LAUGHTER]

So Kelly was mentioning, too, just this surprising snowstorm that hit the Gulf Coast. How does it relate to what we're experiencing?

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, because this arctic air dome is so huge-- I mean, it's over Minnesota-- it pushed all the way south with freezing temperatures to the Gulf Coast-- that's what steered the storm track around it. And that storm, that low-pressure system that, often, this time of year, might track through Iowa or Missouri, tracked into the Gulf of Mexico, and it dumped a whole bunch of snow along the Gulf Coast because it was cold enough to do that.

So yeah, almost 10 inches in New Orleans, an all-time record there, anywhere from 3 to 8 inches all the way from Houston through Mobile, Alabama, to Pensacola, Florida, into Georgia now. So truly a once-in-a-lifetime event. And we can thank that cold air for pushing that way south just to make that historic weather event.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, it's so hard to imagine, watching all of that. What can we expect here through the weekend? Any huge cold snaps coming back?

PAUL HUTTNER: Well, we do have a bit of a temperature speed bump tomorrow. There is a cold front right now in central Minnesota. We hit 27 in the Twin Cities so far today. But it's snowing up north, and it has been overnight. Grand Marais picked up 8 and 1/2 inches of snow. Lots of northern Minnesota, about 2 to 5 inches. So there's fresh snow cover up in northern Minnesota now. A few flurries and snow showers now, and that will continue through tonight.

As that cold front drops through, we'll drop down to about 1 or 2 below in the Twin Cities, teens below up north again. Tomorrow, sunny, 10. Friday, mostly cloudy. We're back into the 20s. 25, 27, Saturday, 25 on Sunday with a mix of clouds and some sun. So it'll feel pretty nice around here starting again Friday as we head through the weekend.

NINA MOINI: And I always forget what's average for this time of year.

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, we are at our lowest average temperatures of the year this week and last week. 23 is the average high and the normal high in the Twin Cities. 8 is the normal low. And we start just edging those up ever so slightly starting next week, Nina.

NINA MOINI: And are you forecasting some warmer, more mild weather next week?

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it looks like we'll get a shift in the jet stream that will blow in air off the northern Pacific Ocean. That's milder for us in the winter, and it looks like we'll see a second January thaw. So highs starting Monday through about Wednesday of next week. Southern Minnesota, 37 to 42. We could hit 40 in the Twin Cities next week.

Northern Minnesota, you may not quite get in on it as much around the thawing point, around 32. But it's going to be pretty mild Monday through Wednesday and then cooler late next week and maybe a little better chance of snow the following week as we move into February.

NINA MOINI: All right, we're almost through January. January has felt long. [LAUGHS]

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah.

NINA MOINI: But the days, we're getting a little bit more daylight. Where are we at daylight, sunset wise?

PAUL HUTTNER: Well, and I love this, this time of year because it kind of buoys my spirits. So we're through the darkest two months of the year. We're more than a month now past the winter solstice. We're gaining 2 and 1/2 minutes of daylight a day this week, Nina.

NINA MOINI: Nice.

PAUL HUTTNER: So you notice that sunset now, 5:07. On clear nights, we have what we call civil twilight, where it's light enough to walk around until 5:40 PM. So it's getting later every day. We're gaining a couple minutes a day. Hang in there. That sun gets higher in the sky. Pretty soon, you're going to start feeling that as it warms us up.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And give us a preview of what's on Climate Cast this week.

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, so of course, we're in a second Trump presidency now, so the big question is what's going to happen with climate policy. I spoke with Jonathan Foley of Project Drawdown and what we can expect during a second Trump term.

Here's the good news. There's a lot of solutions already in the pipeline and ongoing and also a lot of market-driven solutions, like solar and wind, solar now the cheapest form of energy in the history of electricity.

So we'll talk about that and the things that are already happening and maybe find a little bit of good news here as we look forward. That's Climate Cast tomorrow during All Things Considered.

NINA MOINI: Sounds great. Thanks so much, Paul.

PAUL HUTTNER: Thanks, Nina.

NINA MOINI: That was MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner.

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