Reality front: Widespread 30s and frost by Saturday morning

Some say all good things must end.

As I type this blog post late Tuesday afternoon, it’s hard to believe our remarkable run of summer warmth is almost over. But a thickening gray overcast and the spatter of occasional raindrops on the windows at the Weather Lab leaves little doubt that the weather times are a changing.

Yet this warm season in Minnesota has been one to remember. It’s almost as if the universe was trying to make up for our 3rd snowiest winter and reluctant spring.

Here are a few remarkable stats from our warm season of 2023.

• 5th warmest summer on record for the Twin Cities (2.8 degrees above average)

• Warmest September on record (69.1 degrees, 5.6 degrees above average)

• 5th highest number of 90-degree days on record (33 days)

• Highest number of 80-degree days on record. (101 days, previous record 98 days in 1955)

We hit 87 degrees in the Twin Cities Tuesday afternoon.

Savor it. It could be our last 80-degree day of the year. The average last 80 in the Twin Cities is about October 1.

Family of cold fronts ahead

Check out the surface map loop at the top of this post. You can see 2 cold fronts sweeping through Minnesota in the next 2 days.

The first front arrives on Wednesday. Highs will hover mostly in the 60s but we may get close to 70 degrees tomorrow afternoon in southern Minnesota.

By Friday and Saturday highs will hover in the 40s up north with 50s across the south.

Yes, I think we’ll see a few snow showers across northner Minnesota later this week.

Widespread frost

The first frost of the season for many of us is just about 80 hours away. Friday night into Saturday morning will bring the first widespread frost of the season to most of central and southern Minnesota.

The inner core of the Twin Cities may hover around 40 degrees Saturday morning, but the upper 30s will be common in the suburbs.

Cover up those flowers if you want to save them a few more days.