Updraft: January 14, 2008 Archive

No big decisions

Posted at 7:02 AM on January 14, 2008 by Paul Huttner (3 Comments)

Dave Moore, legendary WCCO anchor, used to say, "Make no big life decisions in Minnesota in March."

His wisdom is evident, and could also be applied to the last two weeks of January.

Welcome to the coldest week of the year on average in Minnesota. In the metro, our average high this week is 21 and our average low 3. The good news is our averages start creeping up next week. The bad news, those numbers will look pretty good for most of the next two weeks.

After a brief moderation Tuesday, another arctic front sails through late Wednesday. Temperatures in central Canada have been near -30, and that air is headed our way. I expect northern Minnesota to see lows from -20 to -35, with some spots like Embarrass and Tower touching -40 over the next two weeks.

It will be interesting to see if Lake Superior freezes over in the next two to three weeks. It is completely ice covered once every 20 years or so. The last big freeze was March 6, 2003 when the lake was 90 percent frozen over. In 1996 it was 96 percent, and in 1994, it was 95 percent frozen.

The last time Superior was 100 percent frozen over was 1979.

This will probably be the coldest stretch of the winter. The good news is it may be over in about two weeks, and spring begins in just over two months. Hang in there!

PH

Comment on this post

Now that we have your attention

Posted at 12:50 PM on January 14, 2008 by Craig Edwards

My wife took me to the movie theater yesterday afternoon and we sat through about a half dozen previews before the feature film. It reminded me of the winter of 2007/2008, where we have had sneak previews of arctic air since the first of December. Well, it appears that the featured insurgence of arctic air is about to begin. Tuesday and Wednesday give pause to ponder -- this is Minnesota and it is January.

If you haven’t yet pulled out the best of your layered looked wardrobe, you should have long johns, corduroys, turtle necks and flannel close at hand for the next couple of weeks.

We were due for an invasion of character-building cold in the heart of winter. Since the chilly start to the New Year, there were 10 days in a row where the Twin Cities overnight low temperatures were in the teens, 20s, and even a 30. During the past 24 hours, Old Man Winter has taken control of the dominant air mass. Historically, climate data shows the average maximum and minimum for Minneapolis/St. Paul bottoms out at 21 and 3 degrees, respectively through Jan. 17. No surprise at the timing of this numbing cold.

Hope you enjoyed the early January thaw, because we may be looking at quite a run of temperatures falling well short of 32 degrees. Business is likely to pick up for travel agents soon.
Eight-to-14 day outlook

CE