A cool Monday; milder Tuesday

It’s a cold start early Monday after the fresh layer of snow. At Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, we officially picked up 1.1 inches. It’s enough, with the cold temperatures to have some slick areas.

We’re in the single digits above zero, which is less than ideal for salt and most road chemicals to work effectively. Northern Minnesota is waking up to temperatures in the teens and even 20s below zero where the skies cleared out earlier in the night.

Highs Monday will be mainly in the teens for central and southern Minnesota. Parts of northern Minnesota will likely stay in the single digits. The southwest corner of Minnesota should warm into the low 20s. Winds will be light through the day at about 4-8 mph from the northwest.

We’ll see temperatures overnight drop into the single digits again for southern Minnesota and subzero in northern Minnesota.

Tuesday brings warmer air but also more wind. We’ll see high temperatures near 30 for the southern third or so of Minnesota, with even low 40s in southwestern Minnesota (where they have no snow cover). Northern Minnesota will remain in the upper teens and 20s.

The remainder of this week will be rather quiet, with little if any precipitation. Another cool front will drop temperatures Wednesday into Thursday and create a big snowstorm to our south.

Temperatures will be warming back up late into next weekend. We could see high temperatures in the 30s, to perhaps near 40 again after Saturday.