Your Grandparents Holiday

Growing up in the Fox River Valley to the west of Chicago, Thanksgiving marked the real transition from autumn to winter. Most Turkey Days were overcast and damp; some brought downpours of heavy rain.

Here in the upper Midwest, by the end of November, we are well into the winter season. Today will be more like mid December and much colder than we have experienced recently. We are immersed in one cold air mass.

There was a very survivable snowfall across much of the state on Wednesday. The timing of the heavier snow in the mid afternoon was a little troublesome for pre-holiday travel.

Here are some snowfall totals as reported to the NWS in Chanhassen.

This Thanksgiving will be cold. Wind Chill readings are well below zero early this morning in parts of northwest Minnesota. I lost twenty-five degrees on my thermometer during the overnight hours. Currently the temperature is in the single digits outside the Eden Prairie weather lab.

See this image for the pressure pattern, wind barbs and temperature expectations for 6pm this evening. Notice the high contrast across Ohio. Look for heavy rain to fall across parts of the Ohio Valley in the next twenty-four hours.

Travel weather in our neck of the woods should be okay through the morning. Snow is expected to re-enter the picture later today in northwest Minnesota and the Dakotas.

CE