Unsettled Wednesday, then cooler before heating up next week

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I know, winter lasts into March in Minnesota. I’m talking about meteorological winter. Our three coldest months of the year are December, January and February…meteorologists call that three-month period “meteorological winter”. We’re halfway through meteorological winter, and temps have been warmer than normal so far.  December was 5.6 degrees above normal in the Twin Cities and our average temp over the first 15 days of January was 9.8 degrees warmer than normal.

Sunday highs will be mild (for January).  Our average Twin Cities high temp is 23 degrees this time of year. Twin Cities highs are expected to reach the upper 20s on Sunday, and 20s will be common across most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin:

Southwestern Minnesota could reach the lower 30s.

Sunday afternoon wind gusts of 10-17 mph are expected in most areas, with gusts over 20 mph possible in parts of southwestern Minnesota:

Plotted winds are in knots, with 12 knots equal to around 14 mph.

Back to temperatures, Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the mid 20s on Monday, then around 20 on Tuesday. Temps rebound after that, with highs in the mid 30s on  Wednesday, followed by lower 30s Thursday. It’ll be much colder on Friday, with a high in the middle teens.

We could see a stretch of cool weather from next Sunday into the following week. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows a tendency for below-normal temperatures from Jan. 24 through Jan. 30:

Minnesota and western Wisconsin will see some areas of light snow Saturday evening and overnight. Some spotty freezing drizzle is also possible.

Another batch of light snow showers is expected to spread across Minnesota on Sunday.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern Sunday through Sunday evening:

We’ll give you an update Sunday morning.

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the MPR 

, and you’ll see updated weather info on the MPR News 

You can hear my live weather updates on MPR News at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:39 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ron Trenda

Author

Sunday is looking mostly cloudy, and some of us will see a few flakes at times. We have details on that, plus a look at the week ahead.

A mild Sunday, with a few flakes possible

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