Two snow chances as warmer air moves in

Light snow sweeps across much of Minnesota Friday morning. Highs will be in the teens in southern Minnesota and single digits in the north. Temperatures will be much warmer Saturday. The really warm stuff arrives next week.

Clippers bring some snow

We are on the edge of the colder air as it attempts to retreat. Two clipper systems are sweeping through quickly over the next 36 hours. The first is delivering the light snow we have around the region Friday morning. It will bring a temporary uptick in temperatures, with teens in the south and single digits north.

Behind it, however, temperatures will again drop below zero overnight Friday night.

The next clipper moves in Saturday, but this mainly affects the northern half of the state. The Twin Cities will see some flurries, but northern Minnesota stands to see several inches in some spots.

Temperatures Saturday afternoon will be considerably warmer. We’ll see 20s for most of the central parts of Minnesota with 40s in southwestern Minnesota.

Yet another brief shot of cooler air slides in behind the second clipper Saturday night. Sunday will see highs in the teens for most of Minnesota but the Twin Cities and portions of southern Minnesota should squeeze out a high near 20 degrees.

Big midweek warmup?

The real warm stuff arrives next week. We’re on tap for a 40-degree high by Tuesday afternoon and likely a few days above freezing in total.

The upper-level pattern is such that we’ll see a more prolonged period of milder temperatures next week. We’re going to be the beneficiaries of a very large upper level ridge (warmth) developing the west.

The problem with this pattern is that as that ridge intensifies and then aligns more along the west coast, this will act as a funnel for more cold air mid-month. In other words, don’t get used to mild temperatures quite yet.

Is there a coldest day of the year?

Our cold, of course, created a real mess for much of the United States the last couple of days with ice and lots of snow. Here’s a look at some of the snow totals over the past couple days.

In my chat with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer Friday morning, I answered a listener question about when the coldest day of winter is. Charley Nelson asked: “We know the shortest day of the year, what about the coldest day?”

Historically (1873-2021 data for the Twin Cities), we start to see the average temperature tick upward Feb. 1. After the first few days of February we really see a discernible upward movement.

In modern times (1991-2020 average), we’ve seen that period of average coldest temperature shrink, and start to change earlier. This is another tell tale sign of a warming climate. The window of our coldest temperatures is shrinking, not just getting warmer.

And finally, the Winter Olympics have begun, and climate central reminds us that Beijing, like most places on our planet (especially ones with cold, snowy winters), is warming.