Arctic reinforcements, weekend thaw, then rain to snow?

The best thing about being a meteorologist in Minnesota? There's almost always significant weather to talk about. Call it  job security for meteorologists.

If you put together a word map for Minnesota, I'll bet you five bucks weather words would be the biggest. Snow. Cold. Arctic air mass.

Minnesotans are among the most educated, savvy weather consumers on the planet. We have to be. There are literally several days a year where our weather is life threatening. Six people dead in icy traffic crashes in the last week? Unfortunately that's par for Minnesota in winter.

Our November weather roller coaster kicks into high gear in the next few days. Arctic air, a November thaw and whispers of more snow?

Roger that.

Another arctic smack

One more shot of arctic air surges south on gusty northwest winds through tonight. The center of Canadian high pressure drifts overhead Thursday, and winds will ease as temps struggle again into the mid-teens.

Thursday's record low maximum temp at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is 17 degrees set in back in the lovely weather year of 1978. We have a good shot at that record tomorrow.

By Friday winds turn southerly as the last of the cold wave drifts east. What a concept.

November thaw

Temps bottom out near zero in the metro both Thursday and Friday mornings. Friday's warm front will be noticeable by afternoon and evening as temps moderate on southerly breezes. You may get a chance to chip some ice off your driveway Saturday afternoon, and some rain may do it for you by Sunday afternoon.

The Twin Cities and eastern Minnesota is still on the edge of a potentially significant storm as a rainy mix changes to snow Sunday night and Monday.

The latest runs from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Global Forecast System keep Minnesota on the edge of a potentially significant low pressure storm Sunday night and Monday.

Here's the European model, which winds up a strong low just west of Chicago by 6 p.m. Sunday night. This would put the metro on the rain/sleet/snow line before changing precip over to all snow Sunday night into Monday.

There is still a chance this system could bring significant snow to the metro and/or western Wisconsin.

Stay tuned.

Prolific Buffalo snow totals

Well at least your garage doesn't look like this.

Snowfall totals of 60" , yest that's 5 feet have been reported near Buffalo. The snow is not just an inconvenience, at least 5 people are dead from the lake-effect storm, including one man trapped in a car buried under several feet of snow.

NBC News has this update.

Troopers in all-terrain vehicles set out Wednesday to reach drivers trapped in a ferocious winter storm that dumped 5 feet of snow outside Buffalo, New York — with plenty more on the way.

More than 130 miles of Interstate 90, the main artery running east and west across New York state, remained closed, with no word when it would reopen. More than 100 cars were reported trapped on Tuesday night.

Authorities in Erie County, which includes Buffalo, reported a fifth death, a 46-year-old man found in a car. Four were reported Tuesday, one in a car crash and three from heart attacks, including two people who were shoveling snow.

Snowfall totals may reach 70 to 100 inches locally by the time the #snowsanity ends.