"What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness," wrote John Steinbeck. Good point. These cold fronts give us something to talk about, other than politics and the Vikings.
We're coming out of a weak La Niña cooling phase in the Pacific Ocean, but the maps almost look like something out of a powerful El Niño warming event: a conga line of big, powerful storms battering the West Coast and a strong subtropical jet stream. You'll start to feel that milder, Pacific influence: 20s today and Tuesday; 30s one week from today with a little drizzle. NOAA's GFS model predicts the 40s in two weeks. We'll see, but after one more (brief/fleeting) swipe of cold air later this week, we enjoy a real January thaw.
A slow-moving storm tracking into the Midwest may drop a few inches of snow between tonight and Wednesday; potentially plowable in some areas. After a numbing Friday, temperatures finally recover next week.
If anyone asks — the coldest day of winter at MSP is Jan. 15. After that, average temperatures start to rise again. High-five!
