Cool But Sunny Friday The 13th - Near Record Highs Sunday?

It'll be another chillier day on Friday (even though the high will only be a couple degrees below average) - but it won't be as scary (clouds, poor air quality) as recently as we will see more sunshine. Morning temperatures will be in the upper single digits with highs climbing into the low 20s.

While sunnier skies are expected across much of the state, some thicker cloud cover could hang around in western and far southern Minnesota. Highs will be in the teens and 20s across the state.

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As we head toward the weekend, warmer temperatures usher back into the region. Highs will reach the low 30s on Saturday with a mix of sun and clouds (and more clouds than sun by sunset). It'll be a cloudy Sunday, but it looks like we will try to make a run toward 40F for a high. With some stronger 5-15 mph winds expected Saturday into Sunday, fog likely won't be that much of an issue this time around with the warmer temperatures.

Highs on Sunday could even approach records across parts of the state. Our record in the metro is 43F set in 1990. Meanwhile, Hibbing does appear to break their record for the day.

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Forecast loop from 6 AM Monday to 6 PM Tuesday.

Forecast potential for Noon next Thursday.

It does look like we'll get into a more active pattern next week in the Upper Midwest, as another storm looks to take aim at parts of the region as we head into Thursday. The track of the system currently looks to be to our south again, with parts of central/southern Minnesota getting at least a glancing blow from the north side of it. This is a week out, though, and with a system this far out there is a lot of uncertainty. Another batch of snow could impact the region late next Friday into early Saturday as well. We'll keep an eye on these chances heading into next week.

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Meanwhile we continue to track the drought situation across the state, even though it takes more of a backseat in winter due to the frozen ground. We have seen some improvement recently in the numbers, including over the past week. The amount of the state under severe drought has decreased week-to-week from 15.9% to 6.5%.

Over the past four weeks, we have seen drought levels decrease across a good portion of the state. In fact, from the metro to southwest Minnesota some areas have seen an improvement of two classes (in the metro going from Extreme to Moderate Drought).

Crazy Amounts of Rain Across California
By Paul Douglas

"It never rains in California. But girl, don't they warn ya? It pours, man, it pours." Songwriter Albert Hammond got that right. On the west coast your options are drought or flood. Not much in-between it seems, as weather-whiplash becomes more pronounced in a warmer, wetter climate.

California has experienced 6 major storms in the last 2 weeks. Another 3-4 deluges are possible before the "atmospheric river" relaxes in about 10 days. According to US StormWatch an estimated 24.5 TRILLION gallons of water have soaked California in the last 16 days. Remarkable.

Dr. Douglas is writing you a prescription for vitamin D today with sunshine and highs near 20F. A puff of mild, Pacific air lures the mercury close to freezing Saturday, with upper 30s possible Sunday and Monday before cooling into the 20s late next week.

The atmosphere should be warm enough aloft for light rain Monday; models hint at a few inches of slush next Thursday.

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Paul's Extended Twin Cities Forecast

FRIDAY: Sunny and chilly. Wake up 12. High 21. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind SW 5-10 mph.

SATURDAY: Blue sky, thawing out late. Wake up 14. High 32. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind S 10-15 mph.

SUNDAY: Cloudy and milder. Wake up 31. High 38. Chance of precipitation 20%. Wind S 10-20 mph.

TUESDAY: Clouds, a few flakes. Wake up 31. High 33. Chance of precipitation 30%. Wind NW 10-15 mph.

WEDNESDAY: Glimmers of sunshine. Wake up 19. High 26. Chance of precipitation 20%. Wind SW 3-8 mph.

THURSDAY: Potential for accumulating snow. Wake up 23. High 27. Chance of precipitation 70%. Wind N 10-15 mph.

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Minneapolis Weather Almanac And Sun Data
January 13th

*When do we see 10 Hours of Daylight?: February 6th (10 hours, 1 minutes, 13 seconds)
*When is Sunrise at/before 7:30 AM?: February 3rd (7:30 AM)
*When is Sunset at/after 5 PM?: January 17th (5:00 PM)

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This Day in Weather History
January 13th

1916: The high temperature in the Twin Cities only reaches a frigid -14 degrees.

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The heaviest rain and snow will continue to be out west through the first half of the weekend due to the continued onslaught of atmospheric river systems. However, we're also watching the potential of heavy snow in parts of New England.

While the latest atmospheric river was aimed at northern California into Oregon Thursday, we will see a couple more rounds of rain impact central and southern California Friday and into the weekend. Coastal areas through Sunday morning could see at least an additional 3-6" of rain. Flooding concerns are expected to continue across the state, especially this weekend with the additional rounds of rainfall.

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Biggest US Grid Had 23% Power-Plant Failure in December Storm

More from Bloomberg: "The largest US grid operator saw almost one-fourth of power plants serving 65 million people shut down during the Christmas weekend storm, pushing the region to the brink of blackouts. In the first autopsy of the winter freeze that strained PJM Interconnection LLC last month, the grid operator saw 23% of its power-generation fleet shut down on the morning of Dec. 24, according to a presentation released Wednesday. PJM manages the electrical network that stretches from New Jersey to Illinois. Natural gas-fired plants accounted for 70% of the almost 46 gigawatts of outages and few of the power generators gave notice of impending failure, leaving the grid operator in the lurch as temperatures plunged and electricity demand surged during the holiday weekend. One gigawatt is enough to power about 800,000 homes in the PJM region."

More from the Washington Post: "In recent weeks, a slew of storms has slammed California, bringing torrential rains and deadly flooding. Storms are typical in the winter, including those associated with atmospheric rivers, or long and wide plumes of water vapor flowing from the tropics. But as Earth warms, climate scientists warn these atmospheric river events may be amplified, bringing even more destruction. In other words, the recent events could be just a modest preview of what's to come in warmer years ahead. The impact of these storms is a paradox. Atmospheric rivers generally provide precipitation critical to a region's water cycle. These massive rivers, which sometimes carry 15 times the water volume of the Mississippi River, deliver half of the western United States' total precipitation in less than 15 total days. But too much rain in a short amount of time can have devastating effects on communities. Atmospheric rivers account for nearly 90 percent of California's flood damage. Infrastructure has been destroyed and more than a dozen people have been killed by the storms of the past two weeks."

Switching to an electric car saves money. Unless you're poor.

More from Grist: "The appeal of electric cars is straightforward: Owners get to save money by skipping trips to the gas station and feel good about doing their part to cut carbon emissions. That's part of the reason why U.S. sales are currently soaring, with electric vehicles expected to make up 10 percent of the cars and light-duty trucks on roads in 2030. This is good news for the climate, since transportation is the single largest source of emissions in the country. The decision to switch to electric-powered vehicles benefits 9 out of 10 U.S. drivers, but the lowest income Americans get left behind, according to the results of a new study from the University of Michigan."

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- D.J. Kayser