Mild, cloudy Wednesday; spotty wintry precipitation Thursday
Much of Minnesota will see highs in the 30s Wednesday
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Updated 9:15 a.m.
The mild streak continues and the weather will get even warmer next week. A bit of spotty, wintry precipitation is possible Wednesday night into Thursday for portions of Minnesota.
Weather stays mild; some wintry precipitation Thursday
Even more of the state will enjoy temperatures in the 30s Wednesday as the January thaw expands.
These readings are 10 to nearly 20 degrees above normal for northern Minnesota, where normal highs are in the teens in late January.
Skies will remain cloudy and we’ll continue with widespread fog and even freezing fog in the early morning hours. Each of the next few nights and early mornings, as temps drop to near or below freezing could see freezing fog and drizzle.
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Overnight, temperatures will fall to near or slightly below freezing Wednesday night. Again, watch out for possible slick areas and freezing fog.
Our next minor disturbance will develop some spotty wintry precipitation with light rain and snow showers possible or freezing precipitation in the early morning hours Thursday.
Temperatures will be very similar, mostly in the 30s statewide Thursday.
No end in sight to the mild weather
We’re looking at even warmer temperatures next week and a better shot at some sunshine by Sunday or Monday. Highs in the 40s or even 50 are possible next week for some of us.
The six to 10-day outlooks all the way to the weeks three to four outlooks call for continued above normal temperatures for our region, which equates to highs mostly in the 30s and 40s for southern Minnesota.
A disturbance in the vortex
One of the main drivers of this pattern, besides the strong El Nino is the stratospheric polar vortex.
It was “disturbed,” causing a split or stretching of the vortex, which helped to push cold air into the central United States last week but has regrouped toward the North Pole and is expected to remain strong into early February.
This means the real cold stuff stays bottled up at the pole or on the other side of the hemisphere. The visualization below is a three-dimensional view of the polar vortex from last week (when it was split) into early February when it spins strongly again at the North Pole.
