Dangerous wind chills Wednesday; much milder weekend temps
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The temperature at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 28 below zero as of 8 a.m., and we could lose another degree or two before temps rebound.
This is our coldest official Twin Cities low temp since 1996.
The National Weather Service office in Chanhassen saw minus 30 Wednesday morning:
We still have brisk winds, and early morning wind chill temps hovered around minus 50 in the Twin Cities, with colder wind chills to the north.
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Flag Island, in Minnesota's Northwest Angle, and Park Rapids in north-central Minnesota, had minus 64 degree wind chills at 7 a.m.
Exposed skin can get frostbite in as little as five minutes when the wind chill is 50 below or lower. Metro area winds chills will be in the minus 40s from later this morning into Wednesday afternoon.
Wind chill warnings continue for all of Minnesota and western Wisconsin Wednesday, ending at 9 a.m. Thursday.
Some projected wind chills across southern and central Minnesota:
The Twin Cities metro area wind chill plot is indicated by the dark blue line.
This wind chill chart will come in handy Wednesday.
You can check the latest forecasts and warnings from the NWS offices in the Twin Cities, Grand Forks, N.D., Sioux Falls, S.D., La Crosse, Wis and Duluth.
As always, updated weather information can be heard on the Minnesota Public Radio Network, and you’ll also see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.
Hypothermia and frostbite
Thankfully, this combination of extremely cold temperatures and wind chills is rare.
The National Weather Service and Ramsey County have posted some excellent information on cold weather safety.
It’s good to know the symptoms of frostbite and hypothermia:
Covering exposed skin and limiting our time outdoors are key during this extreme cold.
Treatment tips for frostbite or hypothermia:
What about air temps?
High temperatures will be in the 20s below zero in much of west-central and northwestern Minnesota Wednesday afternoon, with teens below zero elsewhere.
Lows Wednesday night will be very cold, approaching minus 30 in the Twin Cities:
Thursday highs will struggle to reach the single digits below zero:
On Friday, we see metro area highs in the teens.
Much milder air returns this weekend.
Here are Saturday highs:
The metro area and southeastern Minnesota could see 40s on Sunday:
Our next snow chance
As the coldest air slides eastward, there will probably be enough moisture for some light snow, especially Thursday afternoon and Thursday night.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential snow pattern for Thursday and Thursday evening:
The color chart to the right of the loop refers to the strength of the signal that returns to the radar, not to the amount of snow.
Coldest stretch since 1996
This is a very cold stretch of weather, but we had a longer run of very cold days in 1996.
I checked weather data for Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and found low temps of -20 or colder on six consecutive days in 1996:
On Feb. 2, 1996 the MSP airport temperature hit -32. High temps are to the left of the low temps, and the highs were below zero on four of those six days!