Edge of winter: Mild December to close 2014?

Minnesota's Crazy Weather Year of 2014 may be about to end on yet another odd note.

Globally 2014 is very likely to go down as the warmest year on record since 1880. In Minnesota, not so much.

Consider this:

• 9th coldest meteorological winter on record last winter

• Wettest June on record in Minnesota

• 7 of 11 months this year have produced colder than average temperatures in Minnesota.

• Coldest November in 23 years in the Twin Cities.

• 1991 last November colder than November 2014.

• -8.3 degrees vs. average in the Twin Cities last month.

That's right weather fans, during the warmest year on record globally Minnesota has been at the epicenter of global coolness.

So after one of the coolest and craziest weather years in recent memory what can Minnesota do for an encore in December? How about closing a cold year with an unseasonably mild December?

 Pacific breezes

All the major outlooks now favor a dramatic shift to a milder weather pattern as we move forward through December. Here's the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's latest temperature outlook through December 16.

And for the month of December.

Here's the view from the Sioux Falls NWS.

The latest 16-day Global Forecast System temperature output for the Twin Cities has backed off slightly on the potential for 50 degree temperatures. But even highs in the upper 30s and 40s...and nights barely below freezing in the next two weeks means vanishing snow cover.

The obvious question? With the prospect of temperatures near 40 degrees and bare ground a week before Christmas, will we get a cold snap and snowstorm to save a White Christmas this year?

Stay tuned.