Canada snow drought = Mild MN November?

Posted at 8:15 AM on November 2, 2011 by Paul Huttner (2 Comments)
Filed under: Snow cover

You have to go a long way north to find snow on the ground these days. I mean a really really long way north.

Check out the latest snow cover map from NOAA. You can see there is virtually no snow cover on the ground in Saskatchewan or Alberta.

In fact you could drive (or fly) about 1,000 miles northwest of the Twin Cities and see nothing but green prairie and forecast. You have to go all the way to Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories to se continuous snow cover.

Climatologically speaking, there should be snow cover all the way south to the USA-Canadian border by now.

Mild November ahead?

It's a bit of chicken and egg; is the lack of Canadian snow cover contributing to our mild fall, or is there no snow because jet stream patterns this fall are so mild?

Either way, it looks like the trend may continue. Here's what I see looking at the medium range forecast maps through mid November.

-Temps 3 to 6 degrees milder than average overall

-Milder than average spells Thursday-Sunday. A shot at 60 Saturday? Also milder Nov 10-14th. (GFS forecast 50 degrees on November 14th)

-Brief cooler spells today, Nov 7th-8th, finally colder around November 15th-18th?

-Little or no snowfall through November 14th

CPC Outlooks: Mild, not wild

So far the CPC outlooks for November agree with a continued mild trend.

Old man winter may be lurking, but he's nowhere in sight just yet.

Stay tuned!

PH

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Comments (2)

How fast did the snow melt following the Halloween Storm in 1991? I heard the snow depth decreased considerably but another storm hit in November. By December 1st the Twin Cities had already accumulated 50 inches of snow in 1991.

Posted by Craig | November 2, 2011 9:37 AM

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According to data from the State Climatology Office, there was 23 inches on ground from Nov. 2 - 5, 1991. Then it started melting and, by Nov. 20, only a trace remained through the 22nd when another 6.2 inches fell.

Posted by DI | November 4, 2011 6:15 PM

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