5:20 PM Thursday, January 26, 2023
A strong clipper system will affect the Northland tonight into Friday.
As is often the case with clippers there won’t be a whole lot of moisture associated with this system since it is coming out of Canada, so expect mostly light fluffy snowfall in the Northland late tonight through Friday morning.
Snowfall totals should generally range from 0.5 to 2.5 inches in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin from late tonight through Friday morning, but the North Shore especially over the Arrowhead could pick up 3 to 5 inches of snow due to some lake enhanced snow.
In typical clipper fashion will see a surge of warm air advection occur west/south of the surface low with temperatures climbing into the 30s late tonight-early Friday morning from western to southern Minnesota but this surge of warm air won’t make it into the Northland as it gets shunted to the south.
This warm air advection pattern will also help produce an area of snow which will pass through the Northland mid to late this evening through Friday morning.
NAM model forecast for Midnight tonight.
Snow spreads from west to east across the Northland later this evening with snow overnight through about mid-morning on Friday.
For Duluth — Snow begins late tonight (between 11 PM and 1 AM) Snow ends Friday morning (between 8 AM and 10 AM)
18z NAM 3km model radar forecast valid 7 PM tonight to 12 PM Friday.
Another component to this clipper will be gusty winds with increasing southerly winds ahead of the low tonight with wind gusts to 25 mph, and then will see winds shift to the northwest behind the low on Friday with even stronger wind gusts of 30 to 40 mph likely.
Areas of blowing snow will occur across the Northland late tonight and through the day Friday.
HRRR model wind gust forecast from Midnight tonight to Midnight Friday night.
Here’s a look at our clipper as it moves quickly to the southeast out of Saskatchewan and into Manitoba late this afternoon.
Goes-16 water vapor loop ending 4:10 PM CT, Thursday, January 26, 2023.
Something we haven’t seen much of this month is a lot of sunshine, but that all changed today as widespread mostly sunny skies covered northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin, and wouldn’t you know it, the sun comes out and we actually had a colder than average day in Duluth, the first since December 27th!
Duluth also recorded its first subzero temperature of the month today with a low of -3 F at the Airport. The last time Duluth had a subzero temperature was on December 26th with a low of -3 F.
Still looking very cold in the Northland this weekend through the middle of next week with highs mostly in the single digits below to single digits above zero with lows in the -10s and -20s with a chance for some -30s in the traditional cold spots.
Temperature anomaly trends have actually warmed a bit compared to a few days ago from the Northern Plains to upper Midwest. Gone are the widespread purple colors that were forecast on January 24 for the January 30 – February 4 time frame.
Still looks cold, but perhaps not quite as extreme as it looked a few days ago.
Thanks for reading!
Tim
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