Blizzard warnings in Northwest Minnesota, winter weather advisories across the state

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We topped out at 39 degrees Monday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. That’s 14 degrees higher than our average Dec. 23 Twin Cities high of 25 degrees. We won’t dip below normal anytime soon.

Tuesday highs will be mainly in the 30s, with 20s in west-central and northwestern Minnesota:

We’ll probably top out in the upper 30s across most of the Twin Cities metro area.

Christmas Day highs will be in the 30s in most area, with a few 20s in parts of northwestern Minnesota:

We have a shot at 40 degrees Wednesday afternoon in the Twin Cities area, and there could be a few lower 40s in far southeastern Minnesota.

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the upper 30s Thursday, followed by lower 30s Friday and this weekend.

Areas of fog will develop in Minnesota and western Wisconsin overnight Monday night and linger into Tuesday morning. The thickest fog would tend to be after midnight Monday night and into early Tuesday morning. Patchy freezing fog is also possible, which could slick up a few roads, sidewalks and driveways.

You can hear updated weather information on the MPR 

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Periods of drizzle are possible in Minnesota and western Wisconsin on Christmas Day, and there could be some patchy freezing drizzle Wednesday morning.

Additional moisture moves in as we go through Wednesday night and into Thursday. It looks like the Twin Cities metro area and parts of western Wisconsin could see periods of drizzle and light rain showers Wednesday night into Thursday. Central Minnesota may see a wintry mix of drizzle/freezing drizzle and light rain/light snow Wednesday night into Thursday. Northern Minnesota will probably see some periods of light snow and there could also be some patchy freezing drizzle. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from Wednesday evening through Thursday evening:

It’ll be interesting to see if this forecast model changes between now and Wednesday night.

When meteorologists talk about our annual precipitation, we’re talking about rainfall plus the water content of all the snow that has fallen during the year.

The official 2019 precipitation total at MSP airport sits at 41.73 inches as of today. That’s a new annual precipitation record for the Twin Cities, breaking the old record of 40.32 inches set in 2016. Our average annual precipitation total is 30.61 inches, so we are more than 11 inches wetter than normal this year.

Much of Minnesota and most of Wisconsin have seen over 40 inches of precipitation in 2019:

The red-shaded areas are 40 or more inches, with 50 or more inches in the dark red-shaded areas.

The Minnesota State Climatology Office has posted details about our 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ron Trenda

Author

We won’t be using our sunglasses the next few days, but shovels could come in handy up north on Thursday. Details on who will get rain and who will get snow this week. A look at our record-setting 2019 precipitation across much of Minnesota.

Clouds and areas of fog; wintry mix north Wednesday night into Thursday?

Go Deeper.

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