Warmest winter on record; more record warmth ahead

You’ll be hearing a lot about our warmest meteorological winter on record.

You can see from the image at the top of this post that this will be the warmest meteorological winter on record (dating back to the 1870s) for most locations in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest.

Thursday marks the last day of meteorological winter. And since Dec. 1, most of Minnesota has been running about 10 to 12 degrees warmer than average. That’s good enough to beat out the previous warmest winter on record in 1877-78 by about 1 degree pending final numbers.

Check out the magnitude of this record mild winter in the Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index from the Midwest Regional Climate Center. See how this season ranks at the bottom?

And look how it compares to last winter’s snowy blitz. Dramatic differences from year to year.

More record warmth

March rolls in like a breezy lioness this year. Another shot of record warmth blows in on southerly breezes. At 59 degrees in the Twin Cities Thursday was just 2 degrees shy of the record high.

Here are current the record-high temperatures for the Twin Cities for the next 3 days. We have a shot at tying or breaking the record each of these days.

• Friday 59 degrees (1990)

• Saturday 54 degrees (1923)

• Sunday 65 degrees (1905)

Highs Friday on southerly breezes will push into the upper 50s and 60s again across southern Minnesota.

Saturday brings similar warmth.

Sunday brings the warmest day. Highs will tickly 70 degrees from the Twin Cities southward Sunday afternoon.

Dry warm weather and high winds will bring fire weather conditions to much of Iowa and parts of southern Minnesota this weekend.

A cold front Sunday night brings chances for rain to snow. Another system may bring accumulating snow to parts of Minnesota Tuesday into Wednesday.

The first work week of March looks much more like winter than spring.

Stay tuned.