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Lows, Highs, And Wind Chill Readings From Saturday
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Wind Chill Alerts Continue
Wind Chill Advisories continue Sunday Night and, in some areas, Monday Night across central Minnesota, with Wind Chill Warnings in place in northern Minnesota through Monday Night
Through the workweek, wind chills will continue to be an issue across the state, particularly in the morning hours. The coldest for the Twin Cities will be late in the week when another batch of cold air moves down from Canada with increased winds. But for areas as close as St. Cloud, morning wind chills will be at least -25F for the foreseeable future.
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Staying Frigid This Week
Make sure you bundle up the kids as they head out to the bus stop in the morning as lows dip to around -10F in the Twin Cities and into the -30s up in northern Minnesota.
After that frigid start, it at least looks like actual temperatures will make it a few degrees above zero in the Twin Cities Monday! Lighter winds in the morning may help eliminate a wind chill factor at times, but it could still feel like -15F to -20 in the morning when there is wind, and around -10F during the afternoon hours.
When we look at daytime highs Monday across the state... yep, it's still cold. Highs will range from the mid-single digits above zero in southwestern Minnesota to the teens below zero up north. A mix of sun and clouds to mainly sunny skies are expected.
We are going to run out of synonyms for "cold" as we head through the next week. I placed highs and lows through the workweek above, but this cold weather is expected to continue into Valentine's weekend across the state. We do see some slightly warming temperatures through midweek before another lobe of Arctic air moves south, knocking temperatures down once again. There are some model differences once we get into the late week time frame not only on how cold highs may be for the Twin Cities (highs around zero or negative single digits vs. in the double digits below zero) as well as the potential for some snow across southern Minnesota. These differences will be resolved as we get closer... one thing is for sure, we will stay in the deep freeze!
Here's a summary of the workweek in the Twin Cities. While we do see that very slight warm-up through mid-week, temperatures will take a tumble once again toward the end of the week. Morning wind chills will be the "warmest" at the beginning of the week but will be back around -30F by Friday.
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Last Time With A Subzero High
The last time (before this cold stretch) that we saw a subzero high was back on January 31st, 2019, when the high only made it to -3F. If you expand that out to include 0F or below, the last time was back on March 3, 2019, with a high of 0F.
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Stretch Of At/Below Zero Hours
The good news is that this stretch of weather isn't going to rival the record of the longest period at or below zero (in terms of hours) in the Twin Cities. The longest on record was back between December 31, 1911, and January 8, 1912, when the temperature stayed at/below zero for 186 hours! Read more from the State Climatology Department by clicking here.
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Consecutive Days Below +10F
Now, one place we could find ourselves in the record book is the number of consecutive days with a high colder than +10F. Saturday was the first day of our streak, and based on the current forecast, which keeps highs below +10F through at least Valentine's Day next Sunday, that would be nine days in a row which would tie for the 11th longest streak on record. The most was 15 days in a row set four different times, most recently between December 1973 and January 1974.
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Bitter Cold Continues Through Next Weekend
By D.J. Kayser, filling in for Paul Douglas
While the sunshine we saw this weekend looked nice, it certainly was cold if you took a step outside. Unfortunately, things don't get much better anytime soon. Highs for the next week in the metro will only make it to the single digits above and below zero, with morning wind chills in the -15F to -30F range.
These cold temperatures aren't breaking record cold highs or lows. However, they are certainly a shock to the system after the 12th warmest December 1st to February 4th (last Thursday) on record. The current Twin Cities forecast, combined with this past weekend, does has at least nine days in a row with a high colder than +10F, which would tie for the 11th longest stretch.
Due to the cold air in place, the storm pattern remains mainly to our south. The best chance for some light snow might be Thursday, but current model differences keep odds low.
On the bright side, we add about an hour and eighteen minutes of daylight between the beginning and end of February. Warmer weather will be on the way... eventually.
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D.J.'s Extended Twin Cities Forecast
MONDAY: Still cold. Sun/cloud mix. Wake up -10. High 2. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind W 5 mph.
TUESDAY: Blue skies. AM wind chill: -20F. Wake up -9. High 4. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind W 5-10 mph.
WEDNESDAY: Clouds quickly increase. Wake up -10. High 5. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind NW 5-10 mph.
THURSDAY: Mainly cloudy. Slight snow chance. Wake up -8. High 2. Chance of precipitation 20%. Wind NNW 5-15 mph.
FRIDAY: Subzero again. AM sun, PM clouds. Wake up -11. High -1. Chance of precipitation 20%. Wind NW 5-15 mph.
SATURDAY: Another frigid day. Mix of sun/clouds. Wake up -13. High 0. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind NW 5-10 mph.
SUNDAY: Chilled sunshine for Valentine's Day. Wake up -13. High 1. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind WNW 5-10 mph.
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This Day in Weather History
February 8th
1996: Showers and thunderstorms bring a mix of freezing rain and rain across the eastern portion of Minnesota. In Edina, lightning damaged a house.
1933: Arctic air remains entrenched across Minnesota with a morning low of -55 at Warroad.
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Average Temperatures & Precipitation for Minneapolis
February 8th
Average High: 27F (Record: 50F set in 2002)
Average Low: 10F (Record: -29F set in 1899)
Average Precipitation: 0.02" (Record: 1.08" set in 1966)
Average Snowfall: 0.2" (Record: 5.0" in 1905)
Record Snow Depth: 22" in 1967
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Sunrise/Sunset Times for Minneapolis
February 8th
Sunrise: 7:23 AM
Sunset: 5:31 PM
*Length Of Day: 10 hours, 8 minutes and 7 seconds
*Daylight GAINED Since Yesterday: ~2 minutes and 47 seconds
*When Do We Climb To 10.5 Hours Of Daylight? February 16th (10 hours, 31 minutes, and 11 seconds)
*When Is The Sunrise At/Before 7:00 AM?: February 23rd (7:00 AM)
*When Is The Sunset At/After 6:00 PM? March 1st (6:01 PM)
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National Weather Forecast
On Monday, some snow will be possible from the Central Plains to the Great Lakes and Northeast as the storm track is pushed south due to the frigid air in the Upper Midwest. A rain/snow mix will be possible in the Mid-Atlantic to Cape Cod. Storms will be possible in the Southeast. Snow will also be possible in the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies.
The heaviest snow through Tuesday evening will be out in the Cascades and northern Rockies where up to two feet of snow will be possible. Meanwhile, an inch or two of rain could fall across portions of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic.
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Dozens feared dead as Himalayan glacier breaks in India, flooding sweeps into dams
More from NBC News: "At least 150 people are feared dead after a Himalayan glacier burst, sending a massive flood of water and debris crashing into two dams, officials in the country said Sunday. Rescue workers recovered two bodies as they fought to save the lives of workers at the dam sites in the Chamoli district, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said on Twitter. "My prayers are with every missing worker," he wrote, adding that their main focus is on finding people who might be stuck in underground tunnels. He did not elaborate on where the tunnels might be."
Why Setting a Clean Energy Standard Should Be Democrats' Next Move
More from Earther: "Prior to last month, the last time Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the White House was the early Obama years. And one of the signature failures of that period was a 2009 bill that would've created a national cap and trade program but ultimately never came to a vote in the Senate (it squeaked by in the House). Recreating that failure today is simply not an option given the severity of the climate crisis and the fact that both chambers of Congress and President Joe Biden have all indicated climate is a priority. A new report from Evergreen Action, the team that powered Washington Gov. Jay Inslee's climate plan and progressive think tank Data for Progress, lays out a plan for Democrats to make the most of their slim majorities by passing a clean electricity standard. It would set the entire country on a pathway to running on renewables or other carbon-free energy sources—and polling released with it shows the policy is supported by a majority of voters."
For a City Staring Down the Barrel of a Climate-Driven Flood, A New Study Could be the Smoking Gun
More from Inside Climate News: "Not all of the water from the planet's melting glaciers is pouring into rivers and oceans. A surprising amount is building up behind unstable piles of rubble left behind by the retreating ice. As the Earth continues to warm, the swelling lakes threaten to burst through the glacial moraines holding them back and wash away the forests, towns and farms below. The threat is particularly high in the Northern Andes, where some of the world's last big tropical glaciers are dwindling even faster than those in the Alps or Himalaya. At low latitudes, the length of the day doesn't change much during the year, so tropical glaciers don't get a seasonal respite from the sun's direct rays. That's resulted in a rapid meltdown of glaciers near the equator, and the formation of hundreds of lakes in recent decades. New research presents evidence of a direct link between global warming and the growing risk of an outburst flood to the Andean city of Huaraz, Peru."
Water Warning: The Looming Threat of the World's Aging Dams
More from Yale Environment 360: "Who would want to live downstream of the 125-year-old Mullaperiyar Dam, nestled in a seismic zone of the Western Ghats mountains in India? The 176-foot-high relic of British imperial engineering cracked during minor earthquakes in 1979 and 2011. According to a 2009 study by seismic engineers at the Indian Institute of Technology, it might not withstand a strong earthquake larger than 6.5 on the Richter scale. Three million people live downriver of the dam. But their demands for it to be emptied are held up by a long-running legal case in the nation's Supreme Court between Kerala, the state under threat, and Tamil Nadu, the state upstream that operates the dam to obtain irrigation water and hydropower."
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Thanks for checking in and have a great day! Don't forget to follow me on Twitter (@dkayserwx) and like me on Facebook (Meteorologist D.J. Kayser).
- D.J. Kayser
