January Thaw part II: Near 40 by Friday
January Lite
Somebody flipped the winter switch to the "off" position last week.
After a bone chilling week of sub-zero lows, winter has hit the pause button. The Twin Cities piled up six straight days with highs in the 30s through Tuesday.
Polar Vortex? Not so much.
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The best we can do this week is a fresh coating of light snow across the metro.
Most of the metro picked up around an inch of fresh snowfall early Wednesday. Some two- to three-inch totals fell as expected south and west.
Here's the Local Storm Report from the Twin Cities office of the National Weather Service:
Sunshine alert and another thaw
You may want to dig out those sunglasses. The sun makes a rare appearance Thursday.
The next gush of balmy Pacific breezes arrives in Minnesota by Friday. The jet stream takes a Canadian vacation and is unusually far north for late January. A surface low pressure system heads for James Bay, and sends another Pacific warm front sweeping across Minnesota.
Temperatures blow right past the thawing point once again, and if we get some sun don't be shocked to see your local bank thermometer flashing 40 degrees Friday afternoon.
Yes another January thaw weekend is on the way.
Saturday night Clipper?
It's still too early to pinpoint potential snowfall totals with Saturday night's Clipper, but some trends may be emerging.
The latest model run tracks suggest a more northeastward route for Saturday night's Clipper. This could temper metro snowfall totals a bit, and lay down the heaviest bands of snow north and east of the Twin Cities from the Iron Range to Hinckley, through Rice Lake and Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
The eventual storm track is still likely to change. A shift of just 40 miles will make a big difference in totals so stay tuned.
Great Lakes ice way down from last winter
A year ago ice coverage on the Great Lakes was near record levels with nearly 50 percent of the Great Lakes under a sheet of ice. This year there is much less ice on the big lakes, closer to 27 percent.
Lake Superior checks in at around 15 percent ice coverage this week.
Great Lakes ice cover typically peaks in early March.
The longer range outlook hints at ice making temperatures as we hit early February.
Stay tuned.