Free snow: Minnesota’s clipper morphs into northeast blizzard
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Welcome back to the February we never had.
Our potent Alberta clipper brings an impressive snowy coating across Minnesota.
Snowfall totals around the Twin Cities range from just 1.5 inches in Forest Lake and Elk River in the far north metro, to about 4 inches in the southern suburbs. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport picked up 3.7 inches of snow officially.
As expected, the heaviest snowfall bands set up shop along the Minnesota River Valley in southwestern Minnesota. Some impressive 9 to 11 inch totals fell from Wabasso to Redwood Falls to St. James.
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Duluth lake-effect snow band
A narrow plume of heavy lake-effect snow blasted parts of Duluth and Superior, Wis., like a fire hose Monday morning.
The Riverside neighborhood in Duluth picked up 9 inches. Near Jay Cooke State Park, they're digging out from 13 inches of fresh lake-effect powder.
Snow cover effect
Temperatures hover in the 20s early this week with a respectably chilly Canadian air mass overhead.
Our fresh blanket of snow cover has an amazing cooling effect on temperatures. Bare ground allows about 90 percent of the sun's rays to be converted to long-wave radiation, which is much more efficient at warming the lower atmosphere. But a fresh snow cover reflects about 90 percent of the sun's rays back into space before they can heat the air near the ground.
The result? Your thermometer will read about 10 degrees colder early this week than it would without snow cover.
Spring returns this weekend
The February we never had lingers through Wednesday. The upper air pattern evolves into a milder west to east Pacific flow pattern by this weekend.
Temperatures move higher Thursday as we start melting snow. By Friday and into the weekend, temperatures push 50 degrees again close to the Twin Cities. These numbers could be a few degrees on the conservative side by the weekend.
Yes, it will feel like spring again by Friday.
Nor'easter blizzard cranks up
The very same clipper that brought us snow will morph into a developing east coast low and hammer the Northeast with heavy snow and blizzard condition in the next 48 hours.
Blizzard warnings are flying for a good chunk of the densely populated northeast corridor.
Some prolific snowfall totals of 1 to 2 feet will deal a crippling blow to the northeast. I predicts ratings at CNN and the Weather Channel will go through the roof this week.
Stay tuned.