Forecast: Early spring & 50s on the horizon?

We're leading charmed weather lives so far this month.

Abundant sunshine, mild temperatures and light winds make it feel like early spring in these parts. Usually in a pattern like this in early March, we'd be waiting for the other shoe to drop with a resounding thud. Looking at the medium range forecast maps these days, it looks like the other show is sitting quietly on the top shelf.

The overall weather pattern appears to be locked in a quiet mild symphony for the Upper Midwest through much of March. There is a hint at an "Ides of March" rain or snow event around the 15th. Other than that, hazy sunshine and above average temps appear to be the rule.

There are some hints that enough snow may melt in eastern Minnesota by mid month, that we could begin to see an even warmer push of air that could send temperatures int the upper 40s next week and into the 50s in about two weeks. If we can escape significant snow around the 15th, we could see a mostly snow free landscape by late month.

60s in Nebraska today:

Check out the surface temps over Nebraska and South Dakota today. Temperatures are well into the 50s and pushing 60 in some areas. The snow free landscape is soaking up spring sunshine and boosting temperatures there. Our future perhaps here in just a few short weeks.

GOES 1km visible satellite shows snow free areas in Nebraska.

Haze continues:

The MPCA's haze cam shows the smog we're breathing today over St. Paul. Air quality has moved into the unhealthy range for parts of southern Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Our mild and windless weather pattern comes with a price these days.

It could be worse:

Check out this amazing satellite image of an intense dust plume in the Middle East.

At least we don't have this to deal with in Minnesota. When you can see a dust storm from space, you know it's pretty intense.

PH