Sundgaard: December has been 12th snowiest on record
Snow drifts across U.S. Highway 75 near Trosky in southwest Minnesota on Friday. Highways across much of southwest and south-central Minnesota were closed overnight due to blizzard conditions.
Minnesota Department of Transportation
That big winter storm is in the rear-view mirror. Hundreds of crashes and spinouts, impassable roads, blizzard conditions and subzero temperatures were quite a combination.
We've been warming up pretty steadily since then and our forecast this week looks a lot different. Meteorologist Sven Sundgaard is here with the latest.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: I bet you're glad that the winter storm is in the rear view mirror, that big winter storm, hundreds of crashes and spinouts, impassable roads, blizzard conditions, subzero temperatures, and wind chills. We've been warming up pretty steadily since then, and our forecast this week looks a lot different. Meteorologist Sven Sundgaard is here with the latest.
Hey, welcome back.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Hi. Yeah, we've forgotten all about that by now, right?
CATHY WURZER: Our memories, they're so short. Well, let's look at December because we're just ticking this thing down, and we're getting into 2023 pretty soon here. So that was a pile of snow. What did it do for the drought?
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, it has made a little bit of an impact. We've talked briefly a bit before that the ideal form of precipitation to alleviate the drought, specifically soil moisture, is rainfall. And of course, in the winter, that rain isn't going to do much. The ground is frozen. But any moisture is some moisture.
And the snowfall we've had the last few weeks has helped to put a dent in the drought. We did have an extreme swath of drought across Minnesota that, of course, was from the Twin Cities down to New Ulm and all the way to Marshall for the last few months. That disappeared in the last week. So it has made a little bit of an impact.
And we were close to about 10 inches behind year-to-date precip for the Twin Cities basically since August. And now we're only 8 and 1/2 inches behind. So still quite the deficit, but it has made an impact. And all of that is because we've seen about two to three times the normal precip for December.
Our snowfall so far, 19.4 inches in the Twin Cities, is the 12th snowiest December. And 10 inches is the normal amount, so almost double that. Season-to-date snowfall is the 10th most on record. That's pretty significant. Now will that keep going? Probably not. Some years, it's like somebody turns off the faucet. But we've already got quite the running start with snowfall and precip.
CATHY WURZER: OK. So you're right, that's not bad news. It could be worse. I mean, it could be--
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Oh, yeah.
CATHY WURZER: --we could be in Buffalo, New York.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Oh, this is just insane. Of course, they got clobbered in the middle of November. That was a 34-inch snowfall. Well, this has been even worse. The last few days 51.9 inches of snow just December 23 to the 27th in Buffalo.
And they had about a foot of snow four days before that too. So their seasonal snow total, 101.6 inches already. And it's a snowy place because of the Great Lakes, but normal is 30.2 inches to date, so triple the normal amount of snow already.
CATHY WURZER: Oh, my gosh. And then just the impact there is astounding. Wow.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah. And I know you were just talking about 50s there either going to be melting the snow, it'll be just a big mess.
CATHY WURZER: Oh, yeah, no kidding. So let's talk about the warmth, 50s out there and 30s and 40s around here. So a little thaw.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, a little bit of a thaw. What was interesting this morning, we launch, of course, a weather balloon at the National Weather Service office in Chanhassen twice a day, early morning, early evening--
CATHY WURZER: Yes.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: --well, at 46,000 feet above the ground this morning, it was 52 degrees, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: What?
SVEN SUNDGAARD: That's how warm-- yeah, that's how warm this air mass is. It often happens in the winter that it's warmer aloft. The warmer air moves up over the colder air. But 52 degrees, if we kept records-- we don't keep really temperatures records for aloft conditions-- but it would be probably close to a record.
The snow, though, of course, keeps things cooler. So that's why we're dealing with temperatures mostly in the 30s. But that is some very warm air that has streamed in. And that's why, when that gets to the East Coast, they're talking about 50s there. New York City could even hit 63 by the weekend.
CATHY WURZER: That must be a signature of climate change, this yo-yoing.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah. That's been the extreme this year. And that's why-- we've talked about all the snow we've had. Well, our snow depth is only 9 inches. We've melted 3/4 of that. So it's these wide swings in temperature. That's one of the things we're seeing with climate change, more and more snowfall because a warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor, but it's less reliable because we get these swings in temperatures that melt a lot of it.
CATHY WURZER: So with this flow of warmer air, is that why some of us are going to see freezing drizzle?
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, so that warmer, more moist air moves up and over the colder air that condenses out into low clouds. We're seeing a lot more clouds today. And if your surface temperature's below freezing, which it still is in Northern Minnesota, 27 in Duluth right now, you can get some patchy drizzle.
Now that's going to be possible again later tonight, especially for the northern part of the state. But even portions of southwestern Minnesota could see that early tomorrow morning. I think in the Twin Cities, it'll be fine. We got a lot of salt down, and I think our temperatures will be near or above freezing all night long.
CATHY WURZER: OK. So then what about this wintry mix that's-- the dreaded wintry mix that's on our doorstep here?
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, so system one of two ahead comes through tomorrow. That's going to create a narrow swath of snow by the afternoon and evening hours. It's possible we could get up to an inch in the Twin Cities. But it looks like just west of the Twin Cities, basically from Pipestone, Worthington through New Ulm, St. Cloud up the North Shore could see a swath of 1 to 3 inches of snow.
It's going to be a very narrow area. We're going to have to watch all the model runs. But that's not going to be the bigger event. We've got an even bigger storm coming next week. Monday, Tuesday could be a mess with more rain and snow because the warmer air overall is kind of sticking around.
CATHY WURZER: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. OK.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: I know.
CATHY WURZER: So we're going to start the new year with another storm? Does it look like it's--
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah.
CATHY WURZER: --a pretty hefty one? OK.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: It could be a big one. We're talking about some major snow somewhere in Minnesota possible Monday into Tuesday.
CATHY WURZER: I know it's too far out to even look at that. OK. That's delightful. I appreciate that news update. All right, Sven.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: You're very welcome.
CATHY WURZER: Hope you have a great rest of the day. Thank you so much.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: You too, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: That's our meteorologist Sven Sundgaard. By the way, if you're looking for more information, Sven has it for you, Updraft blog, mprnews.org. Of course, Sven joins me every morning on Morning Edition. You can listen every morning online and on the air.
Hey, welcome back.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Hi. Yeah, we've forgotten all about that by now, right?
CATHY WURZER: Our memories, they're so short. Well, let's look at December because we're just ticking this thing down, and we're getting into 2023 pretty soon here. So that was a pile of snow. What did it do for the drought?
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, it has made a little bit of an impact. We've talked briefly a bit before that the ideal form of precipitation to alleviate the drought, specifically soil moisture, is rainfall. And of course, in the winter, that rain isn't going to do much. The ground is frozen. But any moisture is some moisture.
And the snowfall we've had the last few weeks has helped to put a dent in the drought. We did have an extreme swath of drought across Minnesota that, of course, was from the Twin Cities down to New Ulm and all the way to Marshall for the last few months. That disappeared in the last week. So it has made a little bit of an impact.
And we were close to about 10 inches behind year-to-date precip for the Twin Cities basically since August. And now we're only 8 and 1/2 inches behind. So still quite the deficit, but it has made an impact. And all of that is because we've seen about two to three times the normal precip for December.
Our snowfall so far, 19.4 inches in the Twin Cities, is the 12th snowiest December. And 10 inches is the normal amount, so almost double that. Season-to-date snowfall is the 10th most on record. That's pretty significant. Now will that keep going? Probably not. Some years, it's like somebody turns off the faucet. But we've already got quite the running start with snowfall and precip.
CATHY WURZER: OK. So you're right, that's not bad news. It could be worse. I mean, it could be--
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Oh, yeah.
CATHY WURZER: --we could be in Buffalo, New York.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Oh, this is just insane. Of course, they got clobbered in the middle of November. That was a 34-inch snowfall. Well, this has been even worse. The last few days 51.9 inches of snow just December 23 to the 27th in Buffalo.
And they had about a foot of snow four days before that too. So their seasonal snow total, 101.6 inches already. And it's a snowy place because of the Great Lakes, but normal is 30.2 inches to date, so triple the normal amount of snow already.
CATHY WURZER: Oh, my gosh. And then just the impact there is astounding. Wow.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah. And I know you were just talking about 50s there either going to be melting the snow, it'll be just a big mess.
CATHY WURZER: Oh, yeah, no kidding. So let's talk about the warmth, 50s out there and 30s and 40s around here. So a little thaw.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, a little bit of a thaw. What was interesting this morning, we launch, of course, a weather balloon at the National Weather Service office in Chanhassen twice a day, early morning, early evening--
CATHY WURZER: Yes.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: --well, at 46,000 feet above the ground this morning, it was 52 degrees, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: What?
SVEN SUNDGAARD: That's how warm-- yeah, that's how warm this air mass is. It often happens in the winter that it's warmer aloft. The warmer air moves up over the colder air. But 52 degrees, if we kept records-- we don't keep really temperatures records for aloft conditions-- but it would be probably close to a record.
The snow, though, of course, keeps things cooler. So that's why we're dealing with temperatures mostly in the 30s. But that is some very warm air that has streamed in. And that's why, when that gets to the East Coast, they're talking about 50s there. New York City could even hit 63 by the weekend.
CATHY WURZER: That must be a signature of climate change, this yo-yoing.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah. That's been the extreme this year. And that's why-- we've talked about all the snow we've had. Well, our snow depth is only 9 inches. We've melted 3/4 of that. So it's these wide swings in temperature. That's one of the things we're seeing with climate change, more and more snowfall because a warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor, but it's less reliable because we get these swings in temperatures that melt a lot of it.
CATHY WURZER: So with this flow of warmer air, is that why some of us are going to see freezing drizzle?
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, so that warmer, more moist air moves up and over the colder air that condenses out into low clouds. We're seeing a lot more clouds today. And if your surface temperature's below freezing, which it still is in Northern Minnesota, 27 in Duluth right now, you can get some patchy drizzle.
Now that's going to be possible again later tonight, especially for the northern part of the state. But even portions of southwestern Minnesota could see that early tomorrow morning. I think in the Twin Cities, it'll be fine. We got a lot of salt down, and I think our temperatures will be near or above freezing all night long.
CATHY WURZER: OK. So then what about this wintry mix that's-- the dreaded wintry mix that's on our doorstep here?
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, so system one of two ahead comes through tomorrow. That's going to create a narrow swath of snow by the afternoon and evening hours. It's possible we could get up to an inch in the Twin Cities. But it looks like just west of the Twin Cities, basically from Pipestone, Worthington through New Ulm, St. Cloud up the North Shore could see a swath of 1 to 3 inches of snow.
It's going to be a very narrow area. We're going to have to watch all the model runs. But that's not going to be the bigger event. We've got an even bigger storm coming next week. Monday, Tuesday could be a mess with more rain and snow because the warmer air overall is kind of sticking around.
CATHY WURZER: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. OK.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: I know.
CATHY WURZER: So we're going to start the new year with another storm? Does it look like it's--
SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah.
CATHY WURZER: --a pretty hefty one? OK.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: It could be a big one. We're talking about some major snow somewhere in Minnesota possible Monday into Tuesday.
CATHY WURZER: I know it's too far out to even look at that. OK. That's delightful. I appreciate that news update. All right, Sven.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: You're very welcome.
CATHY WURZER: Hope you have a great rest of the day. Thank you so much.
SVEN SUNDGAARD: You too, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: That's our meteorologist Sven Sundgaard. By the way, if you're looking for more information, Sven has it for you, Updraft blog, mprnews.org. Of course, Sven joins me every morning on Morning Edition. You can listen every morning online and on the air.
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