Temperatures will continue to fall over the next few days

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The roof beams sent a loud boom through the Huttner Weather Lab Wednesday night.

Trees and wood expand and contract as temperatures change. Extreme cold can cause trees to crack, and the studs in your walls and roof to pop on cold arctic nights.

Paul Hetzler is an ISA-certified forester and a horticulture and natural resources educator for Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County in New York. He wrote 

 about the popping noises trees can make in subzero cold.

Rapid temperature change: 50 degrees colder

Temperatures plunged 50 degrees in parts of Minnesota between Wednesday and Thursday morning.

Here are some selected minimum air temperatures from around Minnesota  Thursday morning.

Many Minnesota locations recorded the coldest temperature so far this winter season Thursday morning. The Twin Cities reading of minus 11 beat the minus-9-degree temperature recorded on Jan. 19.

Friday morning looks equally cold in some locations. I’m predicting temperatures will bottom out between minus 10 and minus 13 in the Twin Cities early Friday morning.

The upper air pattern favors alternating Pacific and Arctic air mass swipes over the next week. That means highs in the 30s look likely Saturday, Monday and again next Thursday. In between temperatures chill into the 20s. 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

Coldest air mass of winter for many Minnesota locations.

Bob Bricault, Michigan State University Extension

NOAA

Temperature forecast for Twin Cities area

Tree-cracking cold: 39 below up north, 13 below in Twin Cities by Friday morning

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