Another remarkable warm record milestone in Minnesota's warming winters

The temperature reached 50 degrees Wednesday afternoon at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

For the 13th time this winter.

That smashes the previous record for 50-degree days in winter by an astounding five days. The record for the most 50-degree winter days previously was eight days set in 1980-81.

To break a seasonal record like this by five days is quite unusual. You can see on the chart above that the previous records tied or were broken by just one day.

Here’s another metric that shows the clear trend of warmer winters in Minnesota due to climate change: The coldest temperature observed in winter is steadily rising.

You can see the trend on this chart below. Temperatures of minus 20 degrees in the Twin Cities are much less frequent.

Overall, the winter season has warmed more than 5 degrees on average in Minnesota since 1970.