Doubling down on the cold; moderate weekend ahead?

Another shot of arctic air arrived under the cover of darkness. Wind chill readings are well below zero over much of the upper Midwest this morning.  At 6 a.m. the wind chill reading was 15 below zero in Lakeville, on the southern fringe of the Twin Cities metro area.

Winds are expected to remain brisk today, gusting to over 25 miles per hour.  Blowing snow is likely, particularly where a fresh 3 to 6 inches of snow fell on Saturday.

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A strong northerly jet stream will continue to funnel cold air south today.  The low level wind flow from the north and northwest is ideal for heavy snowfall on the downwind shores of the Great Lakes.

While parts of the Northland have missed out on significant snow accumulation, plenty of snow is on the ground in Upper Peninsula of Michigan and northwest Wisconsin.

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You can follow the latest on heavy lake snow for the Marquette, Michigan region on the National Weather Service web link.

There is still plenty of open, relatively warm water for the lake effect snow machine to dump more than a foot of snow on the "favored" locations in Michigan's UP.

The Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab is reporting ice forming at a rather steady pace on lake Superior already this season.

Very cold temperatures, some 20 degrees below the seasonal normal, are expected through much of the week.  A brief bout of light snow is possible on Tuesday night.

Wind chill readings are likely to remain below zero the next 24 hours.

We've been entrenched in the cold for about a week and this graphic of the departure from the 30-year mean validates the depth of the cold.

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When I was preparing a presentation for the energy company a couple of weeks ago, I tossed in this slide as old-school consideration for outlooks on winter predictions.  It probably has more validity than some of the tools used for winter outlooks.

From Wikipedia: It is on track to be the solar cycle with the lowest recorded sunspot activity since accurate records began in 1750.

You can read more on the solar cycle from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Center.

For entertainment value you may wish to search the web for what a couple of scientists are offering about how the decreased solar activity may impact the climate here on planet Earth.

Hang in there, a moderation appears to remain on track for the weekend. Daytime temperatures in the lower 30s would be most welcome for November.