6:30 PM Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Several waves will pass through the Northland through Friday, but none of them look to produce significant amounts of precipitation.
- Tonight, features wave number one, but the track of this wave has shifted further south in model guidance, resulting in little to no precipitation for northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin.
- Wednesday night/early Thursday morning will be when wave number two comes charging through, and that system could bring a skiff of snow to parts of the Northland, but probably no more than a half inch to an inch of snow accumulation.
- The final wave, the strongest one, blows through on Friday, but the track of this system is just too far north of our area, which results in just a little snow or rain, except in the Arrowhead where a few inches of snow are possible.
Here’s the NAM 500mb forecast through 6 PM Friday.
Tonight’s system is approaching from the eastern Dakotas, where there’s some light rain occurring late this afternoon.
Radar loop ends 5:06 PM CT Tuesday, February 25, 2025.
HRRR model simulated radar forecast through 10 AM Wednesday.
Late Week Clipper
A stronger area of low pressure is forecast to track southeast out of southwest Ontario Friday morning. It appears this low will track through extreme northeast Minnesota before moving out across central Lake Superior, and if that track holds, then the greatest chance for a few inches of snow would be in far northeast Minnesota toward the Grand Marais area, with only a few snow or rain showers further to the south.
However, there continues to be some uncertainty about how far south the low on Friday tracks, as some members of the Euro ensemble model bring the low a little further south across north-central Minnesota. If that were the case, then the chances for a few inches of snow would increase in much of northern Minnesota but would stay north of the Duluth metro area.
-Today marks the 3rd straight day with temperatures of at least 40 degrees in Duluth and the 4th day above freezing. This warm weather is affecting snow depth, with the NWS in Duluth reporting a decrease from 10 inches on Sunday to 5 inches by 4 PM Tuesday.
-It is interesting to note that our total snowfall in Duluth for February 2025 will finish slightly above normal even if we do not receive any more snow for the rest of the month. As of 4 PM on the 25th, the snowfall total for the month stands at 16.1 inches. normal snowfall for February is 15.1 inches.
It was another mild late February day in the Northland, with temperatures in the 40s.
Temperatures this afternoon were 15 to 20 degrees warmer than usual for February 25th.
Next week
Early to mid-next week could feature some snow or rain in parts of the Northland as a system approaches from the west.
Currently, this system seems to stay mostly separated, with one area of energy to the north and another moving out of the southern Rockies. The southern Rockies energy is expected to strengthen as it moves east-northeast across the central Plains to the Midwest and eastern Great Lakes by the middle of next week. If this track remains, most of the Northland likely will only see light snow or mixed precipitation early to mid-next week, while a more significant snow event could occur farther south/east. Stay tuned.
Last Friday, ice coverage on Lake Superior spiked to around 46%, putting us above normal for ice coverage for one day; however, we’ve seen a significant decrease in ice coverage once again, with values below 25% as of February 24.
Thanks for reading!
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