Minnesota a little less Nordic, Alaska warmest December in 70 years

If Minnesota's December weather was on your GPS, the little voice would be saying..."turn around as soon as possible, you've missed your exit."

We're finally heading in the right direction.

Temperatures will moderate noticeably over the next few days. It won't be beach weather anytime soon, but you'll feel a lot better as temps rise into the teens above zero, and maybe even the 20s in the coming days.

Progress.

A run at 20 degrees?

You know it's been cold when we're hoping for 20 above. The European model may be a tad optimistic, but high teens are a good bet by Thursday afternoon, and 20s will reappear in southwest Minnesota, and may approach the Twin Cities. Here's the Euro's temp trend into Thursday. Gloves optional?

Cutting to the chase on temps, the trend is positive in the next week. Again the Euro is the warmest and may be on the high side, but temps mostly above zero is a start. If we are able to squeak out 30 degrees in the next week, that's bonus weather territory for many.

Winter vacation, Alaska?

Yes, that would be a stretch. But Alaska has been much warmer than Minnesota lately, as the warmest December temps in 70 years take hold. It turns out that the jet stream spacing on so called 'long waves' means Alaska is usually warm when the Midwest is cold ,and visa-versa.

More details on balmy Alaska from our weather friend Andrew Freedman at Climate Central.

While the continental U.S. has been shivering from coast-to-coast with temperatures dropping as low as minus-40°F amid one of the most severe early December cold snaps in several years, one state bucked the trend in an historic way. The same contorted jet stream pattern that brought the brutal cold to the lower 48 states pushed a pulse of milder-than-average air into Alaska, where some spots recorded temperatures unheard of for December. 

Along Alaska's northern coastline, which lies above the Arctic Circle, the warmest December temperatures on record in at least 70 years occurred this past week. At the airport in Deadhorse, which serves the oil production hub of Prudhoe Bay, the temperature hit 39°F on December 7, the highest December temperature on record there since at least 1968, said Rick Thoman of the National Weather Service (NWS) in Fairbanks in an interview. Even more notable, perhaps, was the fact that it was raining, rather than snowing. Rain there is unusual so late in the year.