Snowy dusting a prelude to milder days

Wintry irony

Most weather logic is simply common sense. The overused "weather rock" concept may be cliche, but you get the point.

Usually when it's sunny you'd expect the days to be warmer right? That's true in Minnesota in summer, but not this time of year. In Minnesota and other northern latitudes the wintry irony is that warmer days are more cloudy.

Why?

Sunny winter days often come with bitter arctic air like the past week. These frigid air masses are spawned in an arctic desert that's bitterly cold and dry. When milder breezes begin to blow in from the south, they usually contain more moisture as they overrun departing cold air domes. The result is usually clouds, fog or even snow.

Which brings us to our latest snowy dusting.

Warmer air and a trough of low pressure pushes in overnight from the west. The snowy dusting amount sits under an inch in most areas, but that's enough to gum up roads with some slick travel tonight. The surface map shows the blue snowy smudge over Minnesota tonight.

Coldest so far

Cold enough for ya? The past week was plenty chilly for this Minnesota born-and-bred weather boy.

Many locations in Minnesota plunged to the coldest temperatures of the winter season so far Tuesday morning.

The perfect recipe for an accentuated metro urban heat island? Clear skies, calm air and snow cover. Temperatures were a good 15 degrees warmer in the inner metro core Monday night.

Warming trend kicks in

The latest read on our late week warm up is not quite as sustained as previous model runs. Right now I'm looking at three days above 30 degrees, Thursday through Saturday. That's still a big change from recent wind chills to -35 in the metro and -54 at Grand Marais.

You'll be amazed at how good 30 feels after the past week.

A cool front sags south by Sunday, and temperatures return to more seasonal highs in the 20s next week. The European model hints at a potential shot of accumulating snow next Tuesday.

Pond hockey weather?

This weekend's U.S. Pond Hockey Championships at Lake Nokomis may face some challenges with sticky ice Saturday afternoon as temperatures crack the thawing point.

I am looking forward to playing in the North American Pond Hockey Championship the following weekend on Lake Minnetonka at Excelsior. NAPHC is a benefit tourney started by one the the finest guys on the planet and a friend to many of us in the Minnetonka area, the late Dave Bigham.

The process of creating more than a dozen skillfully crafted pond hockey rinks is well underway.

The early read on weather next week looks favorable for good ice. Daytime gametime highs in the 20s and nights in the teens to firm up the ice. Does it get any better than this in Minnesota in winter?

The resurgence of outdoor pond hockey in the past decade is one of the best parts of a Minnesota winter for many of us who enjoy outdoor ice. This is the pond I skate on most weekends with my hockey crew. Yes, this is how a weather guy spends his free time on weekends.

I feel it's my meteorological duty as a weather guy to sample Minnesota's outdoor winter weather.