Areas of fog, with mild afternoon temps this weekend

It’s a bit murky out there this Saturday morning.

Fog will linger into late morning or early afternoon in parts of Minnesota. The National Weather Service is continuing a dense fog advisory through late Saturday morning in the grey-shaded areas on this map:

Hennepin and Carver counties of the Twin Cities metro area and points to the northwest are included in a dense fog advisory until noon:

National Weather Service Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN 959 AM CST Sat Jan 2 2021 MNZ041>045-047>051-057>060-066-068-091-021800- /O.EXT.KMPX.FG.Y.0001.000000T0000Z-210102T1800Z/ Douglas-Todd-Morrison-Mille Lacs-Kanabec-Stevens-Pope-Stearns- Benton-Sherburne-Kandiyohi-Meeker-Wright-Hennepin-McLeod-Carver- Martin- Including the cities of Alexandria, Long Prairie, Little Falls, Princeton, Mora, Morris, Glenwood, St Cloud, Sauk Rapids, Elk River, Willmar, Litchfield, Monticello, Minneapolis, Hutchinson, Chanhassen, Chaska, Victoria, and Fairmont 959 AM CST Sat Jan 2 2021 ...DENSE FOG ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON CST TODAY... * WHAT...Visibility one quarter mile or less in dense fog. * WHERE...Portions of central, east central, south central and west central Minnesota. * WHEN...Until noon CST today. * IMPACTS...Hazardous driving conditions due to low visibility. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... If driving, slow down, use your headlights, and leave plenty of distance ahead of you.

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the MPR network, and you’ll see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.

Temperature trends

Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 24 degrees this time of year. Twin Cities metro area highs will reach the upper 20s Saturday afternoon. Highs in the upper 20s are expected across much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin this afternoon, with some 30s in northwestern and southwestern Minnesota. Winds will be fairly light in the metro area and southeastern Minnesota, but it’ll be a bit breezy in northwestern Minnesota.

Sunday highs will be in the upper 20s in eastern Minnesota, with 30s in western Minnesota:

Sunday wind gusts will be less than 10 mph in central and southeastern Minnesota, with gusts over 15 mph possible in northwestern Minnesota:

Plotted wind gusts are in knots, with 7 knots equal to 8 mph and 15 knots equal to around 17 mph.

Back to temperatures, Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the mid 30s on Monday, followed by lower 30s Tuesday and Wednesday and upper 20s Thursday and Friday.

We don’t see any extended cold snaps in the next 10 days. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows a tendency for above-normal temperatures in Minnesota and Wisconsin from Jan. 7 through Jan. 11:

Snow depths

The Thursday snow depth map from the Minnesota state Climatology Office shows at least 4 inches of snow cover in most locations, with 8 inches or more from the north metro into northern Minnesota:

Parts of northeastern Minnesota have more than 15 inches of snow cover.

Daylight increases

Our minutes of daylight increase from as we go though January. Here are the sunrise and sunset times for Minneapolis on Dec. 31:

We had 8 hours and 50 minutes of daylight.

By the end of January, we’ll be seeing 9 hours and 46 minutes of daylight in the Twin Cities :

That’s an increase of 56 minutes of daylight from the end of December to the end of January. Our minutes of daylight will continue to increase right into June.

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on MPR News at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:39 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.