Last subzero night for MSP? 50s likely next week

One more night.

While your MPR Weather guarantee covers only sunrise and sunset, this will very likely be the last subzero night for the Twin Cities and much of southern Minnesota this season. So, what’s the latest subzero temperature ever recorded in the Twin Cities?

March 31, 1969: minus 1 degree.

Temperatures Saturday morning will dive into the minus 20s across parts of central and northern Minnesota. I’m forecasting a bottom of around minus 3 degrees in the inner Twin Cities core, colder in the suburbs.

Temperatures moderate Saturday afternoon. Highs should crack the upper 20s in the Twin Cities, and check out the 30s, 40s and even 50s to the west — preview of coming weather attractions.

Milder Sunday

Sunday afternoon will be the time when you might step outside and breathe in a little sigh of hopeful spring relief. Highs will reach the 40s from the Twin Cities south and west.

Snow chance Monday

The one little speed bump in our springlike week next week arrives Monday. A clipper tracking through central Minnesota may bring a few inches of slushy snow favoring central Minnesota. Most forecast models have the Twin Cities on the southern edge of this system, but it bears watching.

Here’s NOAA’s GFS model for Monday.

50s likely next week

A bigger and more sustained warming trend arrives next Tuesday into the weekend of March 19-20. Highs are likely to reach the (upper?) 50s to near 60 degrees across southern Minnesota as soon as next Tuesday.

The European model cranks out temperatures near 60 degrees across southern Minnesota by next Wednesday.

NOAA’s six- to 10-day outlook strongly favors warmer than average temperatures overall through March 21.

The average high and low next week for the Twin Cities are 42 degrees and 25 degrees.