Northern Minnesota is under a new alert until Friday at 7 p.m.

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Climate change and this winter’s super El Niño combined to produce the warmest meteorological winter (Dec-Feb) on record in Minnesota. 

Data shows climate change has warmed Minnesota’s winters about 5 to 6 degrees overall since 1970. 

This winter we superimposed one of the strongest 

 events on top of that long-term warming trend. That added even more warmth as is statistically likely in El Niño winters in Minnesota. 

Temperatures this winter in Minnesota came in about 2 degrees warmer than the previous record for the December-through-February period. 

Temperatures in the Twin Cities ran about 10 degrees warmer than normal this winter. That beats the previous warmest winter on record of 1877-78 by a full degree. Temperature records in the Twin Cities date back to 1871. 

Minnesota and the Upper Midwest had the warmest winter on record

, including International Falls, St, Cloud and Rochester. International Falls was an astounding 12.3 degrees warmer than normal this winter! 

My MPR News colleague Mark Seeley elaborates on the warmest winter on record in his weekly 

The Minnesota State Climatology Office expands on the 

The record warm weather hits just keep on comin’. Temperatures this weekend will feel more like May than the first weekend of March.

The record high for the Twin Cities Saturday is 54 degrees set in 1923. It will likely get blown away on Saturday. Highs Saturday will ride into the 60s across southern Minnesota.

Sunday also likely brings record warmth. The record high Sunday for the Twin Cities is 65 degrees set way back in 1905. Highs could touch 70 degrees from the Twin Cities southward depending on the timing of an inbound cold front Sunday afternoon. 

Next week looks colder with highs back into the 30s and 40s. A few forecast models suggest a chance of snow late next week around Friday to Saturday. There’s still plenty of time to get a good old-fashioned Minnesota March snowstorm.

Paul Huttner

Author

It was the warmest meteorological winter on record for most locations in Minnesota. 

Final numbers show warmest winter on record for most of Minnesota

Go Deeper.

Like this?