Record warmth Wednesday. A taste of winter possible later next week
Patchy Wednesday morning fog has been thinner than was forecast for central and east-central Minnesota, so dense fog advisories for those areas have been dropped. Thicker fog over southeastern Minnesota, including Austin, will linger into the morning.
Temperatures will warm quickly on Wednesday. The airmass in place is already mild. Temperatures at 8 a.m. include 31 in the Twin Cities — on a day when the average morning low is 9 — and a balmy 39 in Marshall. Sunshine will be bright and the light southwest breeze is a warming wind. Afternoon highs should be in the upper 30s to mid-40s in the north and 50s across the south.
Record highs likely
The early clearing of the stratus clouds and most of the fog almost guarantee record-high temperatures Wednesday afternoon. How warm we actually get depends on how clear the sky remains. If it remains cloud-free, then we will feel the full solar effect on the bare ground and the afternoon should feel like mid-April.
With full sun, the Twin Cities should warm into the mid 50s, blasting the record high of 46 for this date. The all-time record high for January of 58 (set in 1944) might be in jeopardy, but probably not.
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Cooler Thursday
Cooler temperatures return to start February on Thursday. Highs in the 30s north and 40s south will still be much warmer than normal.
Continued mild well into next week
Weather will continue to be quite dry into next week. Stray sprinkles are possible. The best chance for scattered light rain is probably on Saturday as a storm system passes well to our south.
High temperatures will continue to be mainly in the 30s north and 40s south into the weekend and beyond. Lake ice will likely become increasingly unsafe in some areas.
Rain and snow later next week?
Weather forecast models indicate that a storm system later next week might spread rain northeastward into Minnesota. Cooler air on the backside of the system could change the rain over to snow and then leave us with chillier temperatures after the precipitation departs. It might eventually almost feel like winter.