5:12 PM Tuesday, December 26, 2023
- Some rain and drizzle linger tonight into Wednesday morning.
- Areas of wet snow and patchy freezing rain possible tonight into Wednesday morning in far northern and also in southern portions of the Northland.
- Gusty northeast winds near Lake Superior continue through this evening. Winds diminish late tonight.
- Areas of fog tonight and Wednesday.
3 Day Precipitation Totals (December 24 thru 4 PM December 26)
Duluth: 1.75″
Hibbing: 1.66″
International Falls: 0.97″
Nearly 3″ of precipitation (mostly rain) in Duluth so far this month which is +1.68″ above normal to date and is 233% of normal precipitation. It’s been a very wet December.
A new daily record precipitation total was set in Duluth today with 0.51″ of precipitation so far. The previous record precipitation total for December 26 was 0.43″ set in 1938.
Heaviest rain is done in Duluth, but we will continue to see some drizzle and rain showers through Wednesday morning with up to another 0.05″ to 0.10″ of rain possible with higher amounts of precipitation totaling around a quarter inch in northern Minnesota.
Some wet snow is also expected tonight into Wednesday morning in far northern Minnesota, as well as in parts of eastern Minnesota into northwest Wisconsin with a trace to 0.5 inches of slushy snow possible, with up to 1″ of snow in far northern Minnesota.
Note – Little to no snow in the Twin Ports tonight or Wednesday morning.
HRRR model radar forecast through 9 AM Wednesday.
Snow (blue)
Rain (green)
Mix (pink/purple)
This has been quite a system which has been impacting the Northland the last few days, but with all the warm air in place, almost the entire Northland has seen rain out of this system, with the exception to this occurring in far northern Minnesota where we have seen some freezing rain along with some ice accumulations.
Goes-16 water vapor loop from Tuesday afternoon, December 26, 2023.
We’ve seen some big-time ice totals (pink outlined area on map) out of this storm in eastern North Dakota last night and today with accumulations in the 0.25″ to 0.75″ range. While farther south there’s been reports of blizzard conditions (black outlined area on map)
As much as 1.00″ of ice accumulation reported west of Fargo, ND through 10 AM today.
Some pretty impressive snowfall totals in South Dakota and parts of Nebraska over the last few days.
Quite a bit of precipitation (mostly rain) across the area the last few days.
As is often the case with these systems that become so wrapped up, we usually see colder air approach from the south, and that is indeed what is happening today as colder temperatures aloft as low as -9C lift farther north out of Iowa and southern Minnesota late today, and this colder airmass will be over east central Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin on Wednesday, but won’t really ever make it into northern Minnesota as will see the colder 850mb temperatures shift farther south again on Thursday.
A lot of this cold air which is located ~5000 feet in the atmosphere won’t be mixing down to the surface, however, as surface temps remain on the mild side tonight and Wednesday.
Thanks for reading!
Tim