A bitterly cold but sunny day
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As expected, temperatures plunged below zero all across Minnesota overnight. That is what clear skies, snow cover and cold Canadian air can do for you.
The serious cold has been up north, as usual, where Ely was 27 below as of 6 a.m. while Crane Lake reported a nippy 33 below.
A wind chill advisory remains in effect this morning for much of Minnesota north and west of the metro area.
Today we will remain in the heart of this chilly outbreak but skies will be sunny and bright. Highs will be only in the single digits just about statewide in spite of all that sun. The Twin Cities forecast high of around 8 degrees is way below the normal high of 33.
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Tonight is likely to be the coldest night of the rest of the winter. Lows Friday morning should be in the teens below zero statewide and possibly touch 20 below near Canada. The Twin Cities should bottom out close to 8 below.
Friday will be a bit less cold than today with highs in the low to mid teens. As we close in on March, we are gaining around three minutes of daylight daily, but that sun has quite a job to do to warm such a cold air mass.
As our frigid air continues to slide to the southeast, note on the forecast map below that parts of the South from southeastern Texas to southern Alabama to South Carolina will not reach 50 today.
That cold air is feeding in behind the latest winter storm that clobbered the Southeast yesterday and overnight. Chattanooga, Tenn., got blanketed with about 6 inches of snow overnight.
A winter storm warning (bright pink on the map below) remains in effect mainly for North Carolina, Virginia and Delaware for 4 to 8 inches of snow, mixed at times with sleet or freezing rain.
We will start to see milder temperatures build in by Saturday and especially Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
By Tuesday afternoon we can expect another fresh Canadian cold front to chill the rest of the first week of March.
High temperatures next Wednesday are likely to be just in the teens across most of Minnesota. The metro area and southeastern part of the state might get lucky and reach the low 20s.
This can be a time of year with large weather variability, of course. In the Twin Cities, the record high for today is 64 set in 1896. The record low of 21 below was set just one year later.