Northern Minnesota gets an early freeze

Wednesday is another cold day across the state, with freezing conditions to start the day in northern Minnesota, and more record cold highs possible in southern Minnesota.

Wednesday’s forecast

Wednesday is starting even colder than Tuesday across northern Minnesota, with much of the region below freezing, and several locations — including Hibbing, Ely and Bemidji — dropping into the upper 20s overnight. This means most of northern Minnesota has now seen its first freeze of the season, which is earlier than the average of mid- to late September.

Southern Minnesota is starting off milder again, with more 40s, thanks to cloud cover keeping temperatures from dropping as much.

Under more sunshine, northern Minnesota will warm into the mid-50s with a few 60s possible northwest, which is still below average, but milder than the southern edge of the state. 

The persistent active weather south of Minnesota keeps clouds around again Wednesday for southern and eastern Minnesota, along with occasional rain showers, especially in the southeastern corner of the state. 

That pattern will also keep highs in southern Minnesota slightly colder and in the lower 50s. 

This is over 20 degrees below average, and means more “record low maximum” temperatures could be set like we saw on Tuesday. This includes a possible record for the Twin Cities, which will see a high near 51; the current record for the coldest high temperature on Sept. 9 is 55 degrees, set in 1929.

It will also be cold enough overnight that parts of central and even southern Minnesota may start Thursday with frost. 

Temperatures finally start rising by Thursday afternoon. 

That extended forecast will be updated around 9 a.m.

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:48 a.m. Monday through Friday morning.