Wintry winds now; 30s return this weekend
That's more like it.
Our frigid inbound air mass is more typical of a Minnesota January. Wind gusts to 56 mph ripped across North Dakota.
Winds gusted as high as 52 mph Tuesday, in St. Cloud, Minn.
Here's a rundown on the peak gusts from the Twin Cities National Weather Service and Iowa Emergency Management.
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Mild January overall
Monthly climate records show January is running 11 degrees warmer than average so far in the Twin Cities and across much of Minnesota. The monthly temperature departure maps are bathed in a sea of unusually weird tropical colors this month.
Milder by this weekend
If you blink or lapse into a 48-hour Netflix binge coma you may miss our current cold snap. We'll build a little more ice thickness on Minnesota lakes through Friday. Temperatures moderate again by this weekend and into next week.
Winter losing its cool
As chilly as our current front is, it's really more of an "average" front than typical January cold front. Our backyard thermometers are having a much harder time reaching extreme cold numbers in the past few decades.