Very Few Travel Concerns This Holiday Week Locally

A quiet and mainly sunny day is expected in the Twin Cities Monday with highs making it to the upper 20s/low 30s across the metro. Some passing clouds will move on by, but nothing that'll put down any precipitation. I do expect a little increase in cloud cover toward the evening/overnight hours.

These highs will still be about 5-10F degrees below average statewide as we head through Monday. More clouds than sun can be expected at times (especially the second half of the day) in western and northern Minnesota, otherwise, a lot of sunshine will potentially help to melt some of that recent snowfall across the state.

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Good news for travel the next several days in or out of the metro - we will be quiet with dry conditions and just a mixture of clouds and sun. Highs will generally be in the 30s over the next week - and I think there's a chance by Black Friday and the weekend that we could actually see highs in the upper 30s or low 40s.

This is about our only precipitation concern this week for the metro - a slight rain/snow chance that'll move through Wednesday Night into early Thanksgiving Day. There might be a better chance of some of that precipitation falling from the sky across northern Minnesota, but no matter what this looks light at the moment and shouldn't cause too many travel issues.

Taking a closer look at Thanksgiving Day across the state - again, the only concern will be that rain/snow mix, mainly across northern Minnesota. Otherwise, cloudy skies are expected with highs generally in the 30s. I do think the Twin Cities will be slightly warmer than what is shown - I'm personally going with a high of 37F.

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Gobble, gobble! Thanksgiving is quickly approaching this week (and as I say quite often - where has the time gone?!?). As you gather around the table later this week, here are some MSP Thanksgiving stats to spark some conversations! Warmest? 62F in 1922 and 1914. Coldest high? -1F in 1872. Wettest? 1.76" in 1896. Snowiest? 5" in 1970. Last year? Trace of snow with a high of 26F.

Our long stretch of days with snow is in the rear-view mirror, and the snow on the ground could be doing the same with highs in the 30s this week - even nearing 40F late in the week. No big travel concerns locally if you're one of the 54.6 million traveling 50+ miles according to AAA - just a light rain/snow chance (mainly across northern Minnesota) Wednesday Night into early Thanksgiving Day.

Like most holidays, I'll be keeping this quote from Linus van Pelt in mind: "There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin." Actually, I'd be fine if the Great Pumpkin comes up over a slice of pumpkin pie...

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D.J.'s Extended Twin Cities Forecast

TUESDAY: Morning clouds, afternoon sun. Wake up 17. High 36. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind S 5-10 mph.

WEDNESDAY: No travel concerns. Sun/cloud mix. Wake up 21. High 37. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind S 5-10 mph.

THURSDAY: Early AM rain/snow? Turkey Day clouds. Wake up 29. High 37. Chance of precipitation 20%. Wind NW 5-15 mph.

FRIDAY: Clouds slowly decrease for shopping. Wake up 27. High 39. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind NW 5-15 mph.

SATURDAY: Mainly sunny. Clouds increase late. Wake up 29. High 40. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind W 5-10 mph.

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Minneapolis Weather Almanac And Sun Data
November 21st

*Length Of Day: 9 hours, 20 minutes, and 1 second
*Daylight LOST Since Yesterday: 2 minutes and 6 seconds

*When Do We Drop Below 9 Hours Of Daylight?: December 3rd (8 hours, 59 minutes, 4 seconds)
*Latest Sunrise: December 30th-January 5th (7:51 AM)
*Earliest Sunset: December 5th-December 13th (4:31 PM)

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2001: Record highs are set in west and north central Minnesota, ranging from the upper fifties to lower sixties. Redwood Falls set their high with 68 degrees Fahrenheit and Little Falls had a high of 65 degrees.

1980: On this date, around 28 thousand Canadian geese spent their nights on Silver Lake in Rochester.

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On Monday, some lake effect snow will continue to impact areas downwind of Lake Erie and Ontario, but snow won't nearly be as heavy as it was recently. This is partly due to a system passing through southern Canada which will bring parts of New England some snow into Monday Night. Showers can be expected in areas along and near the Gulf Coast. Meanwhile, a system moving into the Pacific Northwest will bring rain and snow chances.

From Sunday through Tuesday some heavy snow (maybe a foot or more) will still be possible near Lake Ontario. The heaviest rain through this time period will be in portions of Florida where 1-2" will be expected.

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Thanksgiving Travel Ticks Up, Just Shy of Pre-Pandemic Levels

More from AAA: "AAA predicts 54.6 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home this Thanksgiving. That's a 1.5% increase over 2021 and 98% of pre-pandemic volumes. This year is projected to be the third busiest for Thanksgiving travel since AAA started tracking in 2000. ... Most travelers will drive to their destinations, much like last year. Nearly 49 million people are expected to travel by car. While Thanksgiving road trips have slightly risen – up 0.4% from 2021 – car travel remains 2.5% below 2019 levels. Air travel is up nearly 8% over 2021, with 4.5 million Americans flying to their Thanksgiving destinations this year. That's an increase of more than 330,000 travelers and nearly 99% of the 2019 volume."

Microsoft, Meta and others face rising drought risk to their data centers

More from CNBC: "Drought conditions are worsening in the U.S., and that is having an outsized impact on the real estate that houses the internet. Data centers generate massive amounts of heat through their servers because of the enormous amount of power they use. Water is the cheapest and most common method used to cool the centers. In just one day, the average data center could use 300,000 gallons of water to cool itself — the same water consumption as 100,000 homes, according to researchers at Virginia Tech who also estimated that one in five data centers draws water from stressed watersheds mostly in the west."

More from CNET: "Next door in the Australian pavilion, chipper baristas serve the best flat whites in town, while across the way at the Brazil booth, splashes of yellow, blue and green mingle hypnotically across digital displays. But at Ukraine's pavilion, all is dark and somber. This is the first year that Ukraine has had its own country pavilion at the UN's climate summit, COP27, which is taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, this week. The space functions as a visual metaphor for the current state of the country, with gray slanting walls, a tree trunk studded with bullets, and a tall cylindrical space featuring samples of damaged soil from all over Ukraine — a tomb for the country's lost and damaged biodiversity."

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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