Updraft: January 24, 2008 Archive

Meteorological hump day

Posted at 7:39 AM on January 24, 2008 by Paul Huttner

We're more than half way home.

Meteorological winter consists of December through February. By that measure, January 15th was the mid-point. If winter was a week, it would be Wednesday night. The weekend is in sight, but we've still got more "work" to do.

So far this has been a pretty "average" winter by most measures.

December temps in the metro were 2.1 degrees below average. January is running 1.1 degree above average so far. So overall temps are near average, which is much colder than any of the past several years.

Season snow is 20.4" so far in the metro. That’s 10.1 inches below the average of 30.5 inches.

Today is our 13th morning below zero. Last year we had 16, and that's average.

So as you sip your coffee and watch the landscape at -15 around much of the metro this morning and -35 up north, take comfort in the fact that winter is more than half over. And it's going to be 50 degrees warmer than it is right now by Sunday and Monday afternoon!

PH

Rebounds in temperature a common this time of year

Posted at 8:15 AM on January 24, 2008 by Mark Seeley (1 Comments)

Many areas of the state reported lows this morning of -30 degrees F or colder, perhaps the coldest readings we'll see this winter. NWS forecast guidance suggests a dramatic warm up this weekend as daytime highs rise into the 20s and 30s F, possibly even reaching 40 F. Is this remarkable? Not really. The historical climate records are full of winter temperature rebounds like this. Recall February 1996 when the state record low temperature of -60 degrees F was set at Tower, MN (St Louis County). Four days later the temperature in Tower was 91 degrees F warmer at 31 degrees F, and five days later it reached 108 degrees warmer at 48 degrees F! What a difference it makes going from the east side of an arctic high pressure system to the west side as these air masses pass across the continent.

Comment on this post