Frost and freeze conditions Thursday night

October starts off very cold, including a widespread frost and freeze concerns by Friday morning and a chance for a few snowflakes north over the weekend. Temperatures rebound into the 60s next week.

Thursday’s forecast

Temperatures started seasonable Thursday with 30s north and 40s south.

However, thanks to colder air behind a cold front, this was colder than Wednesday morning, and the afternoon will also be noticeably colder, with highs only in the 40s and low 50s.

This is 10 to 15 degrees below average for most of the state. Breezy northwest winds will make it feel even colder. The cold front, which is in southern Minnesota as of 9 a.m., will pass entirely through the state by early afternoon. 

In the meantime, it is keeping more cloud cover and extremely isolated light showers across much of the state, especially eastern Minnesota. As the front moves off, rain chances slowly diminish and skies start to clear, particularly during the evening and overnight. 

Very cold Friday

Unfortunately, with clearing skies late Thursday, and colder air behind the front, overnight temperatures will plummet into the 20s and 30s.

This brings widespread frost and freeze concerns by Friday morning. Here are the freeze warnings (bright blue) and frost advisories (periwinkle) that have already been issued as of Thursday morning, but almost all of northern Minnesota and portions of central Minnesota will see freeze conditions early Friday:

Highs also remain colder than average, with most of the state only in the 40s. One improvement versus Thursday is there will be more sunshine and much lighter winds.

More showers Saturday

Already by Friday evening, more clouds return and showers move into northern Minnesota overnight, spreading across the state by Saturday morning.

While most of the precipitation through the day will be just spotty light showers, early Saturday morning, when temperatures are at their coldest, light snow could mix in for northern Minnesota. 

The showers move out by late Saturday, bringing dry skies and more sunshine fore Sunday.

Temperatures rebound

Although temperatures warm a couple degrees over the weekend, highs remain well below average all weekend. Then warmer air returns Monday and temperatures soar, with much of the state back in the 60s Monday, and almost the entire state seeing 60s by Tuesday.

The rest of the week remains mild, with above average temperatures likely through next weekend. 

Here is the forecast trend for Brainerd, in central Minnesota, showing the dramatic warmup of both low and high temperatures, especially versus the cold on Friday:

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:48 a.m. Monday through Friday morning.