Rare Christmas Eve rainstorm may produce thunder and some snow
Dense fog for much of Minnesota into Saturday.
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Get ready for another unprecedented Minnesota weather event.
A record-warm Christmas Eve storm will likely produce dozens of record highs across southern Minnesota on Sunday. The system will also bring widespread locally heavy rainfall with possible thunder. That’s highly unusual as we are typically well into the cold (and snow) season by Christmas.
Fog first
The initial moisture flow is already bringing a blanket of thick fog to parts of Minnesota. A dense fog advisory continues for most of Minnesota until 11 a.m. Saturday.
Including the cities of Litchfield, Glenwood, Princeton, Alexandria, Montevideo, Sauk Rapids, Center City, Ladysmith, Osceola, Cambridge, Morris, Rice Lake, Little Falls, Elk River, Mora, Monticello, St Cloud, Long Prairie, Benson, and Willmar
317 PM CST Fri Dec 22 2023
...DENSE FOG ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 AM CST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...Visibility one quarter mile or less in dense fog.
* WHERE...Portions of central, east central, and west central Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin.
* WHEN...Until 11 AM CST Saturday.
* IMPACTS...Low visibility could make driving conditions hazardous.
* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...While visibilities have improved somewhat this afternoon, they are expected to deteriorate again this evening through early tomorrow morning.
Record warmth ahead
Our most southerly flow will deliver record warmth to parts of Minnesota on Christmas Eve.
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The warmth begins Saturday with highs in the 50s once again across southern Minnesota.
The unseasonable warmth peaks on Christmas Eve. Highs will push well into the 50s across southern Minnesota. We’ll almost certainly smash the record high for the Twin Cities on Christmas Eve of 46 degrees. This will be the warmest Christmas Eve on record for much of Minnesota.
Christmas day brings cooler, but still well above normal temperatures.
A Christmas storm
A potent low-pressure system that dumped flooding rainfall on southern California will spill into Minnesota Christmas Eve. The Canadian model is typical of those solutions that push rain initially. The system then stalls over the Midwest, and a transition to some snow occurs through Tuesday.
The system will be warm enough for mostly rain in most of Minnesota. Several forecast models crank out more than an inch of rainfall with this system. Here’s the European model output.
Snowfall will be significant in parts of South Dakota and central and northeast Minnesota.
Some models suggest we could see some light snow on Christmas Day in the Twin Cities. So though we likely won’t have an official white Christmas of 1 inch of snow depth at 6 a.m. when the observation is taken, we could see a few flakes Christmas Day.
Stay tuned.