Clouds and areas of fog; wintry mix north Wednesday night into Thursday?
A wet 2019, with records shattered
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
We topped out at 39 degrees Monday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. That’s 14 degrees higher than our average Dec. 23 Twin Cities high of 25 degrees. We won’t dip below normal anytime soon.
Temperature trends
Tuesday highs will be mainly in the 30s, with 20s in west-central and northwestern Minnesota:
We’ll probably top out in the upper 30s across most of the Twin Cities metro area.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
Christmas Day highs will be in the 30s in most area, with a few 20s in parts of northwestern Minnesota:
We have a shot at 40 degrees Wednesday afternoon in the Twin Cities area, and there could be a few lower 40s in far southeastern Minnesota.
Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the upper 30s Thursday, followed by lower 30s Friday and this weekend.
Rain and snow chances?
Areas of fog will develop in Minnesota and western Wisconsin overnight Monday night and linger into Tuesday morning. The thickest fog would tend to be after midnight Monday night and into early Tuesday morning. Patchy freezing fog is also possible, which could slick up a few roads, sidewalks and driveways.
You can hear updated weather information on the MPR network, and you’ll see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.
Periods of drizzle are possible in Minnesota and western Wisconsin on Christmas Day, and there could be some patchy freezing drizzle Wednesday morning.
Additional moisture moves in as we go through Wednesday night and into Thursday. It looks like the Twin Cities metro area and parts of western Wisconsin could see periods of drizzle and light rain showers Wednesday night into Thursday. Central Minnesota may see a wintry mix of drizzle/freezing drizzle and light rain/light snow Wednesday night into Thursday. Northern Minnesota will probably see some periods of light snow and there could also be some patchy freezing drizzle.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from Wednesday evening through Thursday evening:
It’ll be interesting to see if this forecast model changes between now and Wednesday night.
Record precipitation in 2019
When meteorologists talk about our annual precipitation, we’re talking about rainfall plus the water content of all the snow that has fallen during the year.
The official 2019 precipitation total at MSP airport sits at 41.73 inches as of today. That’s a new annual precipitation record for the Twin Cities, breaking the old record of 40.32 inches set in 2016. Our average annual precipitation total is 30.61 inches, so we are more than 11 inches wetter than normal this year.
Much of Minnesota and most of Wisconsin have seen over 40 inches of precipitation in 2019:
The red-shaded areas are 40 or more inches, with 50 or more inches in the dark red-shaded areas.
The Minnesota State Climatology Office has posted details about our wet 2019:
“2019 was another banner year for precipitation in Minnesota, with over a dozen individual annual precipitation records set, and the state turning in its wettest year on record.
After a typical to slightly dry January, the precipitation came fast and furious between February and May, with heavy late-winter snows and spring rains contributing to near-record stream and river flooding throughout the state. The summer period saw near-average precipitation, although isolated very heavy rainfall events did lead to isolated areas remaining wetter than normal during that time.
Extremely wet conditions resumed during the fall, with September and October each running at least 50% wetter than average over the vast majority of Minnesota. Precipitation surpluses were especially large during September, when over half of the state received at least two times the normal amount of precipitation.
Precipitation totals for the year exceeded 30 inches over all but about 5-10% of the state, mainly in far northern Minnesota, with totals exceeding 50 inches in parts of southern and southeastern Minnesota. Well over half of the state was 12-20 inches (or 50-70%) wetter than normal. Annual surpluses of that magnitude over such a large area contributed to 2019 being Minnesota's wettest year on record, on a statewide-average basis. Previously the wettest year on record was 1977.
Although no climate observing station was able to break the statewide individual annual precipitation record of 60.21 inches set by Harmony in 2018, many stations with over 50 years of observations did break their own annual precipitation records. Rochester International Airport led the pack with 54.28 inches (as of December 20th), breaking its old record by more than 10 inches.
The Twin Cities International airport, part of the longest station history in the state, had just broken its record in 2016, but broke it again in 2019, with 41.73 inches (as of December 20th). Other records fell in Owatonna, Marshall, Winona, Zumbrota, Elgin, Pipestone, Canby, Minneota, Morris, Artichoke Lake, and Faribault. The majority of these stations broke records that had been set this decade.”
We’ll see what 2020 brings us.