The New Year starts off mild across Minnesota
A mix of clouds and sunshine for the last day of 2020
The final day of 2020 ends with mostly dry skies and seasonably comfortable weather. Then the first week of 2021 starts very mild for January.
Thursday’s forecast
Under mostly cloudy skies overnight, temperatures across Minnesota remained slightly milder than average overnight. Most of the state started Thursday in the single-digits and teens.
A mix of sunshine and clouds remains through the morning, with more sunshine into the afternoon. Those morning clouds are enough to produce a couple flurries in northern Minnesota, but otherwise skies remain dry.
Courtesy of the extra sunshine in the afternoon and a mild southerly wind flow, almost the entire state warms into the 20s by the afternoon.
This is near average for southern Minnesota, but up to 10 degrees above average for northern parts of the state.
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Extended forecast
The New Year will likely start off with areas of fog Friday morning, especially in southern Minnesota, that lift by midday.
There will be a mix of clouds and sunshine once again, with highs in the 20s for almost the entire state Friday.
Even more sunshine returns over the weekend, and temperatures continues to climb, with a few highs in the 30s by Saturday, and most of the state seeing highs in the 30s by Sunday.
In fact, the whole first week of January looks mild, with most highs ranging from the mid-20s into the 30s. Isolated 40s are possible in southern Minnesota, although the snow on the ground will keep temperatures from getting much higher.
This warmth does spread all the way to northern Minnesota. Here is forecast for International Falls through Monday, showing the extent of the mild weather:
Meanwhile, precipitation stays sparse. There could be some light snow in northern Minnesota early next week. Then a more widespread snow chance returns Wednesday, however, there is still a lot of uncertainty with that system.
We will keep you updated!
Programming note
You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:48 a.m. Monday through Friday morning.