Midday sun versus Old Man Winter

I hit the computer refresh button a couple of times at noon to be sure that the hourly weather roundup was actually up to date. Sure enough, the air temperature was a chilly 20 below zero at midday at both Fergus Falls and Thief River Falls. There was a bit of consolation that winds were light and the sunshine was bright.

On this date last year, the high temperature reached 41 degrees in the Twin Cities to be followed by 47 on February 21st. We were about to lose our last bit of meager snow cover that had tallied only about 12 inches for the season. Mother Nature reminded us of winter with over 10 inches of snow in the last week of February 2007.

Checking the records, you have to go deep into March to find a record low temperature that is above zero in the Twin Cities. Some how, March 16th has remained an outlier with a record low of plus 10 degrees. Either side of this date the record lows are negative 7 and negative 8.

Things got crazy in the last week of March 2007 when the mercury climbed to 73 degrees at Minneapolis/St. Paul on the 25th with a record high of 81 degrees on March 26th. Yes, you can reach 80 degrees in Minnesota in March As we frequently commented at the Weather Service, you can’t beat the warmth of the March sun!

A moderation to normal winter like temperatures arrives in time for the weekend.

CE