The coldest stretch of the winter begins this weekend

The weather turns noticeably chillier Friday, but even more frigid air and dangerously cold wind chills target Minnesota over the weekend.

Friday’s forecast

Behind Thursday’s strong cold front, gusty winds from the northwest drew colder air across Minnesota all through the overnight. 

Friday started with temperatures just below zero in northern Minnesota and single digits across the rest of the state, which is seasonably cold for early February. Temperatures barely warm during the day, putting highs mostly in the single digits, with a few low teens south.

Those highs are about 10 to 20 degrees below average. 

Winds stay strong Friday, with gusts of 20 to 30 mph, making the cold feel even more brutal. Wind chills much of the day will feel like 10 to 25 below zero. 

Skies stay dry and mostly cloudy, although some breaks of sunshine are possible.

Bitter cold

Even colder air continues across Minnesota over the weekend. The entire state starts below zero Saturday morning, and portions of northern Minnesota are likely to stay below zero until at least late next week.

Highs Saturday will be below zero for almost the entire state, with southern Minnesota barely making it into the single digits.

By Sunday and Monday morning, lows will be in the negative teens and 20s, with wind chills of 25 to 50 below zero.

Because of the dangerous conditions expected, northwestern Minnesota is already under a wind chill warning from Friday evening all the way to Tuesday morning, for wind chills to 50 below at times. 

The rest of Minnesota, except the very southern edge of the state, is under a wind chill advisory from Friday night to Saturday morning, for wind chills to minus 30. 

Here are those areas with the warning shown in grey and the advisory in blue:

Be aware that the wind chills, especially for parts of northern Minnesota even outside the current warning area, will likely exceed minus 40 on Sunday morning and possibly Monday morning, so expect more of these warnings and advisories to be issued through the weekend. 

This cold persists through next week, and while temperatures may warm just a couple degrees midweek, they could nudge back colder again late week.

Here is one projection of that cold trend for the Twin Cities, with temperature uncertainty shown by the shaded areas: 

This forecast may slightly overestimate the cold late-week, but the Twin Cities definitely keeps lows in the negative teens and highs near zero most of the week. 

The temperature projection for the following week currently appears less frigid but still below average, so this is an extended cold period that Minnesota is heading into.

Meanwhile, with the arctic pattern in place, upcoming snowstorms stay predominantly south of the state, keeping accumulation chances through next Friday very limited.

Programming note

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