Updraft: December 6, 2011 Archive

Saved by the clouds

Posted at 6:40 AM on December 6, 2011 by Craig Edwards
Filed under: Winter 2011-12

A persistent veil of clouds hung over southeast Minnesota overnight. Scattered flurries lingered as well. Cloud cover was sufficient to hold surface temperatures in the middle teens.
See the thicker moisture layer (often an indicator of clouds) over southeast Minnesota, as shown on the water vapor satellite image from early this morning.

This map from the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) depicts the the surface temperatures and wind from 3AM.

Some of the colder temperatures in the state in the overnight hours; 15 below zero at International Falls, Cook, Ely and Hibbing. It tumbled to six degrees below zero at New Ulm.

Check out the current weather obervations by clicking on a location from this website. It may take a few seconds to load.

A bump up in temperature takes place on Wednesday before another shot of colder air arrives on Thursday. Not shown is the moderation on Sunday.

But what I have for you here is the surface map of temperatures and wind from Twister.com from the GFS model for Sunday at noon. Not much in the way of arctic air in the continental USA.

Checking back on the winter of 2010-2011 I counted 18 days of sub zero temperatures reported at the Twin Cities International Airport. The coldest temperature of last winter at the big airport was 16 degrees below zero on January 21st.

By the way, Louisville has a new annual precipitation record. After accumulating a daily record of over two and a quarter inches of rain on Monday, they are now up to 65.70 inches. Compare that to the year to date total of 26.15 inches at Minneapolis International Airport.
CE