A highly active winter pattern has taken hold, with dangerously cold Arctic air settled to the north as a massive winter storm targets a vast area stretching from the southern Plains through the Ohio Valley and into the northeastern U.S. this weekend.
Around here, it’s all about the dangerously cold temperatures that rolled in today and are set to stick around for the next few days.
Note: The high in Duluth today was -3 degrees, recorded at 12:24 AM. Since then, temperatures have been steadily falling as an impressive blast of arctic air pushes in.
Not sure if it’ll drop to -30 in Duluth over the next few nights, but if it does, it would be the first time since February 13, 2021, when the temperature hit -35 degrees.
An extreme cold warning is in effect until noon on Saturday for all of northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin, with wind chills expected to drop as low as 45 to nearly 60 degrees below zero.
Bitterly cold temperatures are expected to stick around Sunday and Monday, though winds should be much lighter than tonight. Still, more cold weather alerts will likely be needed past noon on Saturday.
A vast area is experiencing wind chills ranging from -40 to -50 degrees early this evening.
Note: The wind chill at Duluth Airport hit -47 at 6 PM this evening.
Temperatures as of 5 PM have already dropped into the teens and 20s below zero across the Northland.
Lows tonight, Friday night, and Saturday night will be mostly in the 20s and 30s below zero, with some spots up north possibly getting into the -40s. Highs on Friday and Saturday will only range from around -15 to -5 degrees.
The strongest surge of cold air continues to move southeast through northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin early this evening, with neutral to even slightly warm air advection taking place in northwest Minnesota and northeast North Dakota.
It’s rare to see 850mb temperatures this cold in our area. At the moment, widespread readings around 5,000 feet up range from -35 to -38°C in northeast Minnesota to about -32 to -35°C in northwest Wisconsin.
Mid-level low or a piece of the polar vortex was centered north of Lake Superior early this evening, with 500 mb heights near the center of the low hovering around 490 decameters.
In northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin, 500 mb heights range between 497 and 509 decameters from northeast to southwest, which indicates top-tier cold for our area.
…Massive winter storm this weekend…
While this winter storm won’t affect northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin, it’s worth mentioning because of its sheer size, with widespread snow totals of 6 to 12 inches or more expected from parts of the southern Plains all the way to the northeast U.S., and lighter amounts both north and south of that zone.
The ice from this winter storm is pretty remarkable, with widespread accumulations of about a quarter to half an inch, and some spots possibly getting over an inch.
