Storms start to move out of Minnesota, continue for western Wisconsin

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The warmest Jan. 31 in 150 years of record keeping in the Twin Cities blew out numerous daily high-temperature records Wednesday. 

The Twin Cities topped out at 55 degrees Wednesday afternoon. That broke the previous record of 46 degrees by an astounding 9 degrees. Typically, high temperature records are broken by a degree or two. Breaking a record by 9 degrees is otherworldly for record margins. 

Fifty-five degrees is also a whopping 31 degrees warmer than the normal of 24 degrees for Jan. 31.

Wednesday's record warmth was part of an unprecedented late January warm surge drifting northward from the southern Plains. 

Records are still flowing into the Weather Lab at this hour. 

Here are some notable high-temperature records for Jan. 31 (previous records in parentheses): 

In addition here are some other notable temperature notes for Jan. 31:

The mercury topped out at 61 degrees on Wednesday in Canby in southwestern Minnesota. I saw 60 degrees in nearby Marshall. 

That’s good enough to set a new statewide record for the warmest January 31 on record pending confirmation. The previous warmest January 31 temperature recorded in Minnesota was 57 F in 1989 at Springfield.

Not the warmest January day on record statewide

While this was by far the warmest Jan. 31 on record for most of Minnesota, it was not the warmest January day ever recorded.

That spot still belongs to Jan. 24, 1981. The temperature hit 69 degrees that day in Montevideo in western Minnesota.

I asked MPR’s Mark Seeley and Kenny Blumenfeld with the Minnesota State Climatology Office about that day.

Overall it looks like Wednesday will boost January’s temperature to around 6 degrees warmer than average overall for the Twin Cities.

in a race with the warmest winter on record from 1877-78. 

February will decide if this is the warmest winter on record for the Twin Cities and much of Minnesota. 

 is posted for much of Minnesota overnight into Thursday morning. 

Temperature the rest of this week will cool a bit, but still run about 20 degrees warmer than normal.

Paul Huttner

Author

The warmest Jan. 31 set dozens of records across Minnesota. 

Off-the-charts warmth blows out numerous records Wednesday

Record high temperature at MSP Airport on January 31

Off-the-charts warmth blows out numerous records Wednesday

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