Winter landscape from space, messy Tuesday Clipper
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Minnesota's winter landscape is clearly visible on this NASA MODIS Terra 250 meter resolution satellite shot from Monday afternoon. Note the detail, you can clearly pick out frozen lakes, the Minnesota River Valley, and the snow free areas of southwest and south central Minnesota.
Here's a great example of how snow cover makes all the difference in wintertime temps across Minnesota. Meteorologists often talk behind the scenes about how the snow cover boundary acts as the set-up for the cloud line in winter. The difference in landscape albedo actually crates a pseudo warm front in winter. It's a sort of surface-atmosphere feedback loop.
To the southwest, sunny skies and temps well into the 40s. Over snow covered areas, clouds and temps in the 20s and 30s. It's like clockwork.
Tuesday Clipper
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Our next shot of snow rolls in Tuesday afternoon and evening as an Alberta Clipper sails southeast.Watch the low pressure system and snowy smudge track through southern Minnesota.
The NOAA model driven Twin Cities meteogram from Iowa State suggest two potential shots of snow. An inch or so Tuesday evening....and another chance Sunday.
Here's a more detailed look at the forecast through the weekend. A light wintry mix Tuesday changes to all snow Tuesday night into Wednesday.
In the longer range, NOAA's GFS model has backed off the notion of a more significant surge sub-zero air near the end of January for now.
Will we escape January without another major sub-zero event?
Stay tuned!