Snow will taper off Tuesday Night, otherwise a quiet end to 2020

Our last snow event of 2020 started in the metro during the afternoon hours on Tuesday, and snow should continue to fall into the overnight hours. It appears snow should end in the metro sometime around Midnight-1 AM Wednesday, hopefully leaving crews enough time to plow the roads before the morning commute. (Forecast model loop: 6 PM Tuesday to 6 AM Wednesday. Credit: WeatherBell)

A Winter Weather Advisory remains in place through 6 AM Wednesday as the snow continues across the region into Tuesday Night.

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The end of 2020 is just a few days away with 2021 beginning on Friday! It'll be a cool start to 2021 across the state, with morning lows mainly in the single digits. The warmest temperatures will actually be up near Lake Superior, with lows in the teens for areas like Grand Marais. Highs will mostly climb into the 20s across the state in the afternoon with a mix of sun and clouds to mainly cloudy skies.

As we head into the first weekend of 2021, we should see a mix of sun and clouds both days. Sunday looks to be the cloudier day at the moment, as well as the warmest as highs climb up to around 30F.

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Please Don't Make Fun Of My Sweater
By Paul Douglas

Yesterday's plowable powder was the last snow event, looking out the next 1-2 weeks, as we enter a quieter period. If you like snow (you know who you are) get out and romp in Aspen-like powder the next few days, because another puff of Pacific air will lure backyard thermometers to, or just above freezing a few days next week. That pile of white in your yard won't disappear anytime soon, but it may get a little mushy by within a week or so.

A few cool slaps are brewing for the second week of January, but temperatures remain above 0F the next 2 weeks. Rapid stratospheric warming above Siberia may be an early signal of (much) colder weather the latter half of January. We'll see.

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Paul's Extended Twin Cities Forecast

WEDNESDAY: Flurries taper, breezy. Wake up 18. High 24. Chance of precipitation 40%. Wind NW 10-20 mph.

FRIDAY: Hello 2021. Sunny, light winds. Wake up 13. High 25. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind SW 3-8 mph.

SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy. Still perfect powder. Wake up 17. High 27. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind S 5-10 mph.

SUNDAY: Becoming partly sunny, milder. Wake up 20. High 30. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind SW 5-10 mph.

MONDAY: Clouds increase, brief PM thaw? Wake up 22. High 34. Chance of precipitation 20%. Wind SW 8-13 mph.

TUESDAY: Some sun, milder than average. Wake up 22. High 33. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind SW 5-10 mph.

This Day in Weather History
December 30th

2005: A large swath of snowfall in the 6 to 8 inch range falls approximately north of a line from Madison to Redwood Falls through Glencoe and Woodbury. Even heavier snowfall occurred west of a Granite Falls to Willmar line, where reports of between 8 and 11 inches were recorded. In Willmar, several vehicles were reported stuck in ditches. A semi-truck also rolled onto its side.

1996: 6 to 7 inches of snow falls in Willmar. The new snowfall, in addition to previous heavy snowfall, caused a portion of the historical society's roof to collapse.

1980: A 'heat wave' develops across Minnesota. Redwood Falls hits 51.

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Average High: 24F (Record: 51F set in 2004)
Average Low: 9F (Record: -20F set in 1973)
Average Precipitation: 0.04" (Record: 0.42" set in 2019)
Average Snowfall: 0.3" (Record: 4.9" in 2019)
Record Snow Depth: 19" in 1969

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Sunrise/Sunset Times for Minneapolis
December 30th

Sunrise: 7:51 AM
Sunset: 4:40 PM

*Length Of Day: 8 hours, 49 minutes and 42 seconds
*Daylight GAINED Since Yesterday: ~0 minutes and 42 seconds

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Snow falling from the skies should be out of the picture as we head into Wednesday in the Twin Cities, though your driveway and sidewalk will need to be shoveled out and roads have the potential to still be a little trickier. Temperatures will remain mainly steady in the low 20s throughout the day.

While some snow could linger across northern Minnesota during the morning hours Wednesday, it should be a mainly cloudy day across the state with highs in the teens and 20s.

Highs on Wednesday will be right around average across the state, with slightly warmer than average highs in northern Minnesota. The average high for December 30th in the Twin Cities is 24F.

Temperatures will remain in the 20s to end 2020 and begin 2021 in the Twin Cities - right around to slightly below average for highs. It does look like we should warm up to around 30F for the second half of the weekend.

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As a cold front moves east on Wednesday, rain and snow will be possible from the Great Lakes and Northeast back into the Southern Plains. The next system moving into the Pacific Northwest will bring rain and higher elevation snow to the region.

Through Thursday evening, at least 3-6" of rain could fall across portions of the Southern Plains, including Dallas and Little Rock. A few areas of heavier snow (6"+) will be possible - one in the upper Midwest, another in western Texas, and a third out in the Cascades where feet of snow could occur.

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Thousands of Birds Starved to Death This Fall in the U.S. South

A Massive Radioactive Jet From the Early Universe Has Been Spotted

More from Gizmodo: "When the universe was a fledgling billion years old, a galaxy spewed a ginormous, fast-moving jet of radiation and plasma into the cosmos. Nearly 13 billion years later, that jet is visible to humans in the form of a blazar. The jet was recently imaged and analyzed by a team of Italian astronomers. Their findings, which give a sense of the jet's length and speed, were recently published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Viewed through the Very Long Baseline Array—a formation of 10 radio telescope antennas stretching from St. Croix in the Atlantic Ocean to Hawai'i's Mauna Kea in the Pacific—the blazar looks like a galactic smear of tomato sauce on the cosmic lens. What's actually captured in the false-color image, though, is a bright-orange jet of plasma, pointed roughly at us and stretching about 1,600 light-years long, a distance that defies any terrestrial analogy."

Fatal freshwater skin disease in dolphins linked to climate crisis

More from The Guardian: "Dolphins are increasingly dying slow, painful deaths from skin lesions likened to severe burns as a result of exposure to fresh water, exacerbated by the climate crisis. Researchers in the US and Australia have defined for the first time an emerging "freshwater skin disease" reported in coastal dolphin populations in the US, South America and Australia. While cetaceans can survive in fresh water for short periods, sudden and prolonged exposure – such as when an animal becomes trapped, or the salinity of their habitat is affected by heavy rainfall – has been found to cause a form of dermatitis."

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- D.J. Kayser