A light round of snow on Thursday

A weak system that brings a dusting of snow across Minnesota Thursday also helps temperatures recover somewhat from Wednesday’s chill.

Thursday’s forecast

Compared to Wednesday, Thursday is off to a much milder start, despite much of northern Minnesota being below zero. Morning temperatures range from few negative teens northwest to mostly single-digits (above zero) south.

However, with the negative teens northwest and light winds, wind chills in northwestern Minnesota are in the negative 20s and occasionally 30s, prompting a wind chill advisory in that area until noon.

Much of the reason for the relatively milder weather Thursday is because a disturbance is moving across the state. It is causing some light areas of snow around the state, most of which stays north, but even the Twin Cities has had a little light snow as of 7 a.m. snowfall is expected to remain under an inch through the day.

That disturbance also moved a few more clouds in, allowing less overnight cooling, and brought in a milder wind flow from the southeast, especially in southern Minnesota.

During the day, that milder wind pattern will help southern Minnesota warm back to seasonable highs in the 20s, while northwestern Minnesota remains slightly below average with single digits and a few negative highs.

The brief return to seasonable weather does not last long. Already by Friday, temperatures dive again, setting up a dangerously cold New Year’s weekend.

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

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:49 a.m. Monday through Friday morning.