Spring Is In No Great Hurry This Year

Although 30s and a few 40s will dominate our weather into next week, models bring a brief arctic slap into town by mid-March. It would be premature to pack away the parkas just yet. Check the blog for more details. -Todd Nelson

March 2, 2022 at 3:30AM

Status of Spring

"February 28, 2022 - Spring leaf out continues to progress north through southern and western states. Our spring leaf anomaly compares the arrival of spring leaf out this year to a long-term average of 1991-2020. Spring leaf out started arriving over a week early in the southernmost part of Texas and Florida and then slowed, arriving one-two weeks late across much of the Southeast. In the last couple weeks, spring is progressing more rapidly, arriving a few days to a week early in the southern Great Plains and parts of North Carolina and Virginia. In western states, spring leaf out is patchy, arriving a week late in some locations and over a month early in others. Spring bloom has also started to arrive in southern states, days to a week late in Texas and Florida and days to several weeks early in California. Spring bloom is slightly early in South Carolina."

Status of Spring - March 1st (National Phenology Network/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Busy Week of Weather Ahead

Here's the weather outlook from AM Wednesday to PM Monday, which shows active weather as we head through the first few days of March. Weak clipper systems will bring a chance of a light wintry mix on Wednesday and Thursday. However, a much larger storm appears to be developing later in the week and weekend ahead with a messy mix. It's still too early to get specific, but stay tuned as the week progresses.

Weather Outlook From AM Wednesday to PM Monday (Tropical Tidbits/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Wednesday Weather Outlook

The weather outlook for Minneapolis on Wednesday shows a chance of a light wintry mix. Precipitation will be very light, but there could be a minor snow coating as well as a light ice glaze across parts of the region.

Wednesday Weather Outlook For Minneapolis (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Meteograms for Minneapolis

The hourly temps for Minneapolis on Wednesday show temps starting around 30F in the morning and topping out in the mid 30s by the afternoon. Northerly winds will blow around 20mph through the day.

Hourly Temps & Sky Conditions For Minneapolis on Wednesday (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Hourly Wind Gusts & Direction For Minneapolis on Wednesday (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Wind Chill Values Wednesday

Feels like temps for Minneapolis on Wednesday will be in the 20s through much of the day.

Hourly Wind Gusts & Direction For Minneapolis on Wednesday (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Weather Outlook on Wednesday

Wednesday temperatures will be close to average across the central part of the state, but will be below average across the northern part of the state by nearly -5F to -10F below average. Temps across the southern part of the state will warm to above average levels by nearly +5F to +10F above average.

Weather Outlook For Wednesday (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Highs From Average on Wednesday (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Extended Temperature Outlook For Minneapolis

The extended temperature outlook for Minneapolis over the next several days shows near average temps through on Wednesday, but will be nearly -10F below average on Thursday. We get back to near average levels on Friday and again this weekend.

Praedictix (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Extended Weather Outlook For Minneapolis

The extended weather outlook through the week ahead shows somewhat active weather Wednesday and Thursday with light snow and and a light mix possible. A bigger storm develops Friday and into the weekend with a messy wintry mix. Stay tuned...

7 Day Weather Outlook (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Extended Temperature Outlook For Minneapolis

According to the ECMWF & GFS extended temperature outlook, readings will be quite a bit warmer than they were at the end of February. There appears to be a string of 20s and 30s with a couple of near 40F highs possible through mid month.

ECMWF Extended Temperature Outlook For Minneapolis (WeatherBell/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
GFS Extended Temperature Outlook For Minneapolis (WeatherBell/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

8 to 14 Day Temperature Outlook

According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, the 8 to 14 day temperature outlook shows colder temps across the Western half of the nation with warmer than average temps in the southeastern US.

8 to 14 Day Temperature Outlook (NOAA CPC/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

8 to 14 Day Precipitation Outlook

According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, the 8-14 Day precipitation outlook shows more active weather possible across the Central & Eastern US.

8 to 14 Day Precipitation Outlook (NOAA CPC/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Spring Is In No Great Hurry This Year
By Paul Douglas

In no particular order, I'm looking forward to complaining about: mud, soggy doggy droppings, bugs, humidity, boisterous thunderstorms and rainy, ruined weekends. That will be a big upgrade.

Meteorological winter, the coldest 90days of the year, on average, is now behind us. It was the coldest December through February since 2013-14. Not record-cold, consistently cold, with few thaws and 26 subzero nights at MSP. That's quite enough.

Although 30s and a few 40s will dominate our weather into next week, models bring a brief arctic slap into town by mid-March. It would be premature to pack away the parkas just yet.

Or the snow shovels. A sloppy Saturday storm may drop plowable amounts of snow from Alexandria into the Minnesota Arrowhead, but mild air tangled up in the system could mean mostly ice and rain from the Twin Cities on south and east. Mixed precipitation storms are a sign that winter is on a slow fade. Spring is coming. No time soon, but sweaty, sticky, buggy, thundery days are coming back. Yep.

Extended Forecast

WEDNESDAY: AM flurries, PM clearing. Winds: N 8-13. High: 34.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy and quiet. Winds: N 5-10. Low: 14.

THURSDAY: Mostly cloudy, chilly. Winds: E 5-10. High: 25.

FRIDAY: Dim sun, trending milder. Winds: E 10-20. Wake-up: 23. High: 36.

SATURDAY: Icy mix changes to rain MSP metro. Winds: NE 10-20. Wake-up: 31. High: 35.

SUNDAY: Flurries taper, some sunshine. Winds: NW 10-15. Wake-up: 23. High: 32.

MONDAY: Partly sunny and brisk. Winds: W 10-15. Wake-up: 11. High: 24.

TUESDAY: Mild sunshine. Winds: W 8-13. Wake-up: 17. High: 40.

This Day in Weather History

March 2nd

1913: A record low of 24 degrees below zero is set at the St. Cloud Regional Airport.

Average High/Low for Minneapolis

March 2nd

Average High: 35F (Record: 54F set in 1923)

Average Low: 19F (Record: -17F set in 1913)

Record Rainfall: 0.58" set in 1951)

Record Snowfall: 7.1" set in 1951

Twin Cities Almanac For March 2nd (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Sunrise/Sunset Times for Minneapolis

March 2nd

Sunrise: 6:48am

Sunset: 6:01pm

Hours of Daylight: ~11 hours & 13 minutes

Daylight GAINED since yesterday: ~ 3 minute & 06 seconds

Daylight GAINED since Winter Solstice (December 21st): ~ 2 Hour & 27 Minutes

Moon Phase for March 2nd at Midnight

0.6 Days Before New Moon

Moon Phase For February 28th (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

National High Temps Wednesday

The weather outlook on Wednesday shows above average temps in place across much of the nation. Some of the warmest temps will be found in the Central and Southwestern part of the nation with record to near record highs possible in a few locations.

National Weather Outlook For Wednesday (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Highs From Average on Wednesday (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

National Weather Outlook

Weather conditions through midweek shows a large storm system developing in the Western US with areas of rain and mountain snow. This will develop into a much larger storm in the Central US late week and the weekend ahead.

Weather Outlook Through Thursday (NOAA WPC/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Extended Precipitation Outlook

According to NOAA's Weather Prediction Center, areas of heavy precipitation will be found across parts of the Central US, Midwest and into the Great Lakes and Northeast. There will also be areas of heavy precipitation across the Pacific Northwest with heavy mountain snow potential.

Extended Precipitation Outlook (NOAA WPC/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Extended Snowfall Outlook

Here's the ECMWF extended snowfall outlook through the week ahead, which shows areas of heavy snow across the northern tier of the nation and the Western US.

ECMWF Extended Snowfall Outlook (WeatherBell/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Climate Stories

(NOAA/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

"How An Amateur Meteorologist Set Off A Climate Change Firestorm — In 1938"

"In 1938, a British engineer and amateur meteorologist made a discovery that set off a fierce debate about climate change. Scientists had known for decades that carbon dioxide could trap heat and warm the planet. But Guy Callendar was the first to connect human activities to global warming. He showed that land temperatures had increased over the previous half-century, and he theorized that people were unwittingly raising Earth's temperature by burning fossil fuels in furnaces, factories and even his beloved motorcycles. When Callendar published his findings, it set off a firestorm. The scientific establishment saw him as an outsider and a bit of a meddling gentleman scientist. But, he was right. His theory became widely known as "the Callendar Effect." Today, it's known as global warming. Callendar defended his theory until his death in 1964, increasingly bewildered that the science met such resistance from those who did not understand it."

"Transformational change is coming to how people live on Earth, UN climate adaptation report warns: Which path will humanity choose?"

"Governments have delayed action on climate change for too long, and incremental changes in energy and food production will no longer be enough to create a climate-resilient future, a new analysis from scientists around the world warns. The world is already seeing harmful impacts from climate change, including extreme storms, heat waves and other changes that have pushed some natural and human systems to the limits of their ability to adapt. As temperatures continue to rise, transformational change is coming to how people live on Earth. Countries can either plan their transformations, or they can face the destructive, often chaotic transformations that will be imposed by the changing climate."

"IPCC issues 'bleakest warning yet' on impacts of climate breakdown"

"Climate breakdown is accelerating rapidly, many of the impacts will be more severe than predicted and there is only a narrow chance left of avoiding its worst ravages, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said. Even at current levels, human actions in heating the climate are causing dangerous and widespread disruption, threatening devastation to swathes of the natural world and rendering many areas unliveable, according to the landmark report published on Monday. "The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet," said Hans-Otto Pörtner, a co-chair of working group 2 of the IPCC. "Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future."

Thanks for checking in and don't forget to follow me on Twitter @TNelsonWX

@TNelsonWX (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

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Todd Nelson

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