Not quite record warmth for the weekend, but it will be close

It's going to be a delightful weekend with temperatures soaring into the 60s and approaching 70 degrees, and we'll get an extra hour to enjoy it. Daylight Saving Time begins at 2 a.m. Saturday, so remember to turn your clocks back one hour before heading to bed.

The unseasonable November warmth isn't quite record-breaking, said Alexandra Keclik, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Chanhassen, but it will be close.

"It's just going to be a beautiful weekend," she said.

That bodes well for homeowners who still have to clean up leaves or want to get a head start on putting up Christmas decorations "so they won't have to do it when cold weather comes," she said.

A jet stream far to the north in central Canada is allowing southwesterly winds to pump the mild air into Minnesota. With lots of sun, temperatures will be in the upper 60s Friday, with a few readings around 70 in southwestern Minnesota, the weather service said.

While the Twin Cities will be close to tying or breaking records, the mercury will likely fall just short of all-time highs. The record high for Friday at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where official temperatures are recorded, is 74 degrees for Friday, 71 degrees for Saturday and 73 degrees on Sunday. The forecast is calling for a high of 70 degrees Friday and 68 and 67 degrees on Saturday and Sunday respectively, the weather service said.

The unseasonably warm and dry weather pattern is expected to continue into next week, although high temperatures will dip into the upper 50s by Monday and Tuesday.

So far the temperature in the Twin Cities has not reached the freezing mark of 32 degrees this fall. The last time the metro area had its first freeze of the season in November was in 1958, when the first reading of 32 degrees or colder was Nov. 6.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture on Friday was advising farmers and fertilizer applicators to check soil temperatures before applying ammonium-based nitrogen fertilizers. Warm weather this season has kept soil temperatures around the state from dropping below 50 degrees, the recommended temperature to apply nitrogen and avoid fertilizer loss.

Of the abnormal warmth, "it's yielding a mixed bag of emotions here," Keclik said. "People either want snow or they love [the warmer weather]."

Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768