Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Colder Wednesday night before warming up this weekend

Wind chill advisory WED night
Wind chill advisory Wednesday night into early Thursday
National Weather Service

Highs Wednesday will only be in the single digits in the southeast part of the state, including the Twin Cities, but stay subzero for most of western and northern Minnesota.

After another subzero night Thursday night, though considerably warmer, we’re back into the teens Friday and Saturday brings a return to 30s in southern Minnesota and 20s in northern Minnesota.

Cold enough

This latest cold air mass may not be quite as cold as the last couple visits, but it’s still just plain cold. Temperatures Wednesday will not get above zero for most of western, central, and northern Minnesota.

In the Twin Cities and areas southeast we should manage single digit above zero highs, but wind will chills will remain well below zero.

highs WED
High temperatures Wednesday afternoon
National Weather Service

Back well behind the trenches of the leading edge of the arctic air in Minnesota, we’ll see our coldest night of the cold snap yet Wednesday night into early Thursday.

Lows will be in the low teens below zero in the Twin Cities but parts of northern and northwestern Minnesota will be in the low 30s below zero.

lows Thursday
Low temperatures early Thursday morning
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, via pivotal weather

Wind chills of course will be even colder Wednesday night and Thursday morning. We can expect mainly teens and twenties below zero for southern Minnesota but wind chills in northern and northwest Minnesota will be much worse, in the 30s below zero.

Northwestern Minnesota could see wind chills of minus 50!

Northwest MN advisories
Temperatures and wind chills in northwest Minnesota
National Weather Service

After another subzero night Thursday, though considerably warmer, we’re back into the teens Friday and Saturday brings a return to 30s in southern Minnesota and 20s in northern Minnesota.

highs SAT
High temperatures Saturday
National Weather Service

Ice, snow grip the U.S. south of Minnesota

We may have the cold, but at least we’re not getting an ice storm. Snow lovers may want the heavy snow in Illinois and Indiana, but almost no one wants a thick ice accumulation. That’s what areas to the south are seeing with a large winter storm system.

National hazards
National hazards map: large winter storm south of Minnesota
NOAA via pivotal weather
Big storm south
Storm system moving through the central U.S. and northeast
College of DuPage Weather

A heavy swath of snow will fall for a long swath along the edge of our arctic air from the plains all the way to the northeast. The heaviest will be south of Chicago where over a foot could fall.

snow south
Heavy snowfall today for much of central U.S.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, via pivotal weather

The more treacherous aspect, the ice, will coat a large area from Texas into Illinois and Tennessee.

ice accumulation
Ice accumulation from Texas through Indiana Wednesday
NOAA, via pivotal weather

Thaw next week?

Beyond Saturday, we do cool off temporarily Sunday with highs back into the teens to around 20 degrees but next week we’re on track for a thaw.

Some models, such as the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts computer model, brings in three days in the 40s.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center gives us odds of above normal temperatures much of the middle and later part of next week. So if you’re sick of the cold, just hang on a little longer.

CPC 6-10 day outlook
6 to 10 day temperature outlook
NOAA Climate Prediction Center