Saturday/Saturday Night Weather Recap
What a day of weather it was Saturday into Saturday Night across the metro. In the above graphic is a listing of all the weather conditions from Saturday in the NWS climate report for MSP. It doesn't mention snow, but that occurred after the cutoff of the report at Midnight Saturday Night. The thunderstorms helped to delay the Minnesota United soccer game by over an hour in the evening, and the 0.80" of liquid Saturday at MSP set a new record for the day (previous: 0.70" in 1961).
And then the precipitation changed over to snow. Officially really early Sunday morning MSP saw 3.3" of snow. As the tweet from NWS Twin Cities mentions above, most of that fell within a two-hour period.
Meanwhile, some areas of the west metro including Hopkins, Excelsior, and Maple Plain saw half a foot of new snowfall overnight! Of course, the snow and ice messed up the roads across the region Sunday morning.
Off to our south in Iowa, several tornadoes formed with this system - some of them ending up to be quite large. These tornadoes, unfortunately, caused fatalities, with six reported dead southwest of Des Moines.
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Partly Sunny Monday Ahead
A calm and partly sunny Monday is ahead here in the Twin Cities with highs starting off in the low 20s and only climbing to the upper 20s for highs.
As we look statewide, quiet conditions with highs 5-10F degrees below average are expected Monday as we see mainly 20s for highs.
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Warm Tuesday But Cooler Temperatures Return
After a cool start to the week Monday with highs 5-10F degrees below average, we'll pop up to around average heading into Tuesday with a high right around 40F. That won't last, though, as another blast of cooler air works in for the second half of the week and the first half of next weekend with highs generally in the 20s (though it may not get out of the teens Thursday or Friday).
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Up And Down Temperatures - More Snow Later This Week
By D.J. Kayser, filling in for Paul Douglas
March is, on average, the fourth snowiest month of the year for the Twin Cities. So, it's only right that after thunderstorms and freezing rain Saturday evening precipitation ended as heavier snow Saturday Night. 3.3" of snow officially fell at MSP Saturday Night - most of that within a two-hour period - but some places out in the west metro saw a half a foot fall!
We start the work week off quietly. Highs today are several degrees below average, but highs will pop to around 40F Tuesday. Don't get attached to the warmer weather, though, as our next snow potential moves across southern Minnesota Wednesday Night into Thursday. In something that should shock no one, the Boys State Hockey Tournament begins Wednesday. Coincidence? Teens and 20s then rush in for the end of the week and the beginning of the weekend.
We're now less than two weeks away from the "official" start of Spring with the Spring Equinox Sunday, March 20th. Soon we'll be talking about April showers and May flowers. And hopefully those showers won't be of the freezing rain kind!
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D.J.'s Extended Twin Cities Forecast
MONDAY: Partly sunny skies. Wake up 19. High 29. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind NW 5-10 mph.
TUESDAY: Morning sun. Increasing clouds. Wake up 16. High 38. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind SW 10-15 mph.
WEDNESDAY: Mainly cloudy and cooler. Wake up 13. High 24. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind NW 5-10 mph.
THURSDAY: Southern MN snow chances. Wake up 7. High 19. Chance of precipitation 30%. Wind N 5-15 mph.
FRIDAY: Cloudy with a few flurries. Wake up 4. High 20. Chance of precipitation 20%. Wind NW 10-15 mph.
SATURDAY: Sun/cloud mix. Average high: 40F. Wake up 2. High 23. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind SW 10-15 mph.
SUNDAY: DST begins. Late day snow chance. Wake up 12. High 31. Chance of precipitation 20%. Wind S 5-10 mph.
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Minneapolis Weather Almanac And Sun Data
March 7th
*Length Of Day: 11 hours, 28 minutes, and 39 seconds
*Daylight GAINED Since Yesterday: 3 minutes and 8 seconds
*When Do We See 11.5 Hours Of Daylight: March 8th (11 hours, 31 minutes, 47 seconds)
*Earliest Sunrise Before DST Begins: March 12th (6:30 AM)
*Latest Sunset Before DST Begins: March 12th (6:15 PM)
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This Day in Weather History
March 7th
1987: A heat wave across Minnesota brings the earliest 70 degree readings on record to the Twin Cities. The record high for the day was 73, breaking the old record by 13 degrees. Shorts were common and people were turning over dirt in their gardens for planting.
1950: A snow and ice storm hits Minnesota. The heaviest ice was in northwest and west central Minnesota, especially in Norman County near Twin Valley. 52 electrical poles were down in this area with ice up to 1 ½ inches on wires. All communication lines out of Fargo were out with wind gusts estimated up to 60 mph. In order to provide temporary long distance service to and from isolated communities, short wave radio equipment was used to bridge the gaps. In Pipestone, several plate glass windows were blown in. During the snowstorm that followed later in the day, a Northwest Airlines plane crashed into three homes in Minneapolis killing all 13 on the plane and two on the ground. The left wing of the plane struck a flagpole at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery as it circled to land.
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National Weather Forecast
A system continuing to work east on Monday will produce snow and ice from the Great Lakes to New England, and showers and storms from the Northeast to the Gulf Coast. Some snow showers will be possible in the Rockies.
Numerous record highs are expected in the Eastern United States on Monday, stretching from the New York City area south to the Florida Keys.
Heavy rain will be possible across portions of the Ohio River Valley through Tuesday, with the potential of over 3". These areas have already seen heavy rain this year, so flooding could be an issue. Several inches of snow will be possible out in the Rockies, across portions of the upper Midwest, and into New England.
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During Droughts, Thirstier Mountain Forests Could Mean Less Water Downstream
More from NC State University: "Using data gathered by satellite, North Carolina State University researchers found that higher elevation forests in the Blue Ridge Mountains are often maintaining, and sometimes even increasing, their water use during extreme droughts. Published in the journal Landscape Ecology, the findings suggest upstream forests' increased water consumption could leave less water downstream for forests, cities and wildlife during drought. "We're expecting that droughts will become more severe and frequent, so it's important to understand how that's going to influence the amount of water we have available," said the study's lead author Katie McQuillan, a graduate student in the Center for Geospatial Analytics at NC State. "We found that these forests are using more water on average during droughts, and that leads to less water ending up downstream.""
Climate Change Is Taking a Big Bite out of Our Food Supply
More from WIRED: "With its siege on neighboring Ukraine, Russia has embroiled two of the world's five leading wheat exporters in a chaotic war, representing about a quarter of the global trade in staple grain. Not surprisingly, global wheat prices surged during the first few days of the invasion. They've come down a bit since, but they remain at their highest level since the early 2010s. That's not a comforting milestone. Back then, extreme weather in wheat powerhouses Australia, the United States, and Russia, along with a few other factors, caused wheat prices to spike. The result: bread riots in the Middle East that helped bring about the Arab Spring and the still-simmering civil war in Syria. Geopolitical shocks like Russia's attack on Ukraine fall upon a global food system already wobbling from climate change, according to the latest report released on Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations' assemblage of 270 researchers from 67 countries."
Air pollution change linked with Europe/Asia extreme weather
More from the University of Reading: "Air pollution increases in South East Asia, combined with pollution cuts in Europe, may have had an important influence on European and Asian weather patterns in recent decades, new research has found. Analysis of weather records and climate models by scientists at the University of Reading revealed that changes in air pollution levels in the two regions was likely the primary driving force behind changing atmospheric conditions that favoured prolonged summer extremes in Europe, as well as causing dry spells in Central Asia. New research published in Nature Communications shows that the air pollution changes during 1979-2019 reduced the temperature gradient between the two regions, significantly weakening the jet stream over Asia."
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Thanks for checking in and have a great day! Don't forget to follow me on Twitter (@dkayserwx) and like me on Facebook (Meteorologist D.J. Kayser).
- D.J. Kayser
