Merry White Christmas
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The blizzard is gone. But it left behind the makings of a white Christmas for just about all of Minnesota. Official airport measurements report 8 inches on the ground in the Twin Cities and 6 inches in Duluth. Southeastern and northwestern Minnesota came up short on snow. Rochester and Fargo-Moorhead report only about an inch of snow cover.
Quiet Christmas Day
Most of the middle of the country will be storm-free for the holiday. Part of our departed blizzard will be dropping copious amounts of moisture on the Northeast. Heavy snow will fall downwind of Lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie. And a sloppy storm of rain and snow is pushing into the Pacific Northwest.
Minnesota will enjoy mostly sunny skies and milder temperatures that began to arrive overnight. The Twin Cities should have Friday afternoon highs around 19 with a light southwest breeze of 5 to 10 mph. This will be a much milder day than was Christmas in 1996. On that date, the Twin Cities had a low of 22 below and a record-low maximum temperature of 9 below. The following morning, Dec. 26, brought a low temperature of 27 below.
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Western Minnesota will be deeper into the milder air and will see highs in the mid to upper 20s for this Christmas afternoon.
Duluth, northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin will get highs mainly in the upper teens with some spots warming into the low 20s. Flurries are likely in the Arrowhead. The meteorologists at the Duluth National Weather Service office think that conditions are right for fun in the snow from Christmas Day and through the weekend.
The sunshine and milder temperatures will do a lot to improve driving conditions.
Pleasant weekend
The weekend looks to be mostly drama-free. Afternoon temperatures will be rather close to normal. A weak Alberta clipper will spread light snow across mainly the north half of Minnesota on Sunday. Much of central to northern Minnesota could pick up about one to three inches of fluff while the Twin Cities area is likely to see an inch or less.
Chilly Monday
Monday will turn colder with highs in the single digits from central to northeastern Minnesota and teens in the south and west.
Winter storm next week?
Forecast models indicate the likelihood of a winter storm developing over eastern Colorado early next week. That’s where many big winter storms originate and draw in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. Where it will track and who will get how much snow is quite uncertain at this time, but if it comes our way it should impact Minnesota in the Tuesday-Wednesday period. Significant snowfall followed by strong northwest winds is certainly a possible scenario.