It’s been a while since the Northland was under a wind chill advisory.
-Wind Chill Advisory in effect from 9 PM this evening to 9 AM Thursday for northern and northeastern Minnesota including the North Shore of Lake Superior (light blue area on map below)
-Some cities included in the advisory are International Falls, Bigfork, Grand Rapids, Walker, Hill City, Moose Lake, Cloquet, Duluth, Hibbing, Cook, Ely, Two Harbors, Isabella, Silver Bay and Grand Marais.
-Wind chills as low as 35 below zero.
-The dangerously cold wind chills could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes.

That’s a strong high with a central pressure at 30.77″ late this afternoon, this high is moving southeast, which means the Northland will start to get into a warm air advection pattern by Thursday afternoon once that high moves far enough to the southeast.
Source: RAP model; https://www.spc.noaa.gov/

Warm-up is still on the way! Milder temperatures arrive Friday, and these milder temperatures will stick around through the weekend.
Source: 12z European ensemble model 2.18.2020; https://weathermodels.com/

A fairly strong low pressure system will be moving ashore into southern California on Saturday, this system is then forecast to move across the Southern Rockies during the remainder of the weekend before moving out onto the Southern/Central Plains early next week. Note: This system looks like it will remain well south of the Northland early next week with no impacts from rain, ice or snow expected in our area.
Source: 18z NAM model 2.19.2020; https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/

Low Temperature reports from around the Northland for Wednesday morning, February 19th, 2020. Source: https://www.weather.gov/dlh/ 14 W Isabella, MN: -32F Kabetogama, MN: -28F Crane Lake, MN: -27F 2 E Celina, MN: -27F Embarrass, MN: -25F Chisholm-Hibbing Airport: -25F Cook, MN: -24F Bigfork, MN: -24F Deer River, MN: -22F Barnes, WI: -20F Aitkin, MN: -20F Orr, MN: -20F Pine River, MN: -20F Hill City, MN: -19F International Falls, MN: -19F Brainerd, MN: -18F Clam Lake, WI: -18F Siren, WI: -17F Northome, MN: -16F Minong, WI: -16F Hinckley, MN: -15F Solon Springs, WI: -15F South Range, WI: -13F Danbury, WI: -13F Grand Marais Airport: -13F Esko, MN: -12F Duluth Airport: -11F Two Harbors, MN: -11F Ashland, WI: -8F Superior Airport: -8F Duluth Harbor: -6F |
Low temperature forecast for Thursday morning, February 20th, 2020. Source: https://graphical.weather.gov/

High temperature forecast for Thursday, February 20th, 2020.

…Weather Summary…
Clear and frigid once again tonight with lows in the teens, 20s and 30s below zero.
Dry with lots of sunshine Thursday. A little warmer by the afternoon with highs in the middle teens to lower 20s which is roughly 10 degrees below normal for late February.
850mb temperatures of -20 to -25C tonight will warm to -10 to -15C by Thursday afternoon, and to 0 to +3C Friday afternoon as will get rid of the arctic air mass which has been over the Northland the last few days.
A dry pattern should continue Friday and through the weekend with high temperatures in the middle 30s to lower 40s. Note: About the only weather issue this weekend could be some low clouds/fog which may develop if we get enough snow melt to occur which would add some moisture in the atmosphere.
Looking ahead into next week (final week of February) I don’t see any major weather systems affecting northeast Minnesota or northwest Wisconsin.
Note: Duluth’s snowfall total for February is at 5.4 inches, and the way the models have trended for next week, I’ll be surprised if we add more than a few tenths of an inch of additional snow to that total by the end of the month. Will likely finish well below normal in the snowfall department for February which comes off a record snowiest February last year (36.4 inches of snow)
Forecast for Duluth and Superior
*Wind Chill Advisory in effect from 9 PM this evening to 9 AM Thursday*
.Tonight… Frigid. Clear. Low 11 below to 16 below. Wind west to northwest 5 to 15 mph. Wind chills as low as 35 below zero.
.Thursday… Sunshine. High 13 to 18. Wind southwest 10 to 20 mph. Morning wind chills as low as 35 below.
.Friday… Warmer. Partly cloudy. High 32 to 37. Wind southwest 10 to 20 mph.
Normal temperatures for February 20 High 26 Low 8 Sunrise Thursday 7:05 AM CST Sunset Thursday 5:40 PM CST |
Thanks for reading!
Tim