Frigid temperatures this weekend prompt cold weather advisories

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Thermometers across Minnesota will get a rigorous workout in the next week.

First, we watch thermometers rise overnight into Thursday morning. 

Temperatures peak Thursday in the mid-30s near the Twin Cities. Temperatures in the 40s are likely Thursday in Rochester, Minn., and La Crosse, Minn. A very 

-January air mass covers the Midwest Thursday south of Minnesota with the 50s as close as Iowa and temperatures near 60 degrees in Kansas City Thursday. 

Out Thursday warmup is a one-hit-wonder. Cold air plunges back into Minnesota Friday. We recover early next week again before the bottom drops out next Wednesday.

The maps continue to crank a bitter arctic air mass south into Minnesota next Wednesday. The precise magnitude is still in question. The one-week out upper air forecast still place a deep, cold upper wave over Hudson Bay, with a brittle flow south into Minnesota.

Models often back off on forecast temps as an extreme cold event approaches. The latest model runs suggest the core of the coldest air will pass over Minnesota next Thursday morning. The latest forecast model runs suggest temperatures bottoming out around minus 16 to minus 18 in the Twin Cities. 

It could get as cold as minus 35 in far northwest Minnesota.

Factor in the wind next week and we could see windchill levels to the minus 50s up north.

The medium-range forecast overall for mid to late January favors colder than average temperatures across the Upper Midwest.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

Minnesota will feel some big temperature swings over the next week. 

European model (ECMWF) wind chill forecast 6 am Thursday January 16

ECMWF via pivotal weather

NOAA

NOAA via Weather Bell

Upper air forecast map for 6 pm January 16

European model (ECMWF) temperature forecast 6 am Thursday January 16

Temperature whiplash: 30s Thursday, 50 degrees colder next week?

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