Magic snow, cold now, milder late this week

It's the prettiest snow we've had by far this winter. It also seemed magical. Fluffy, pristine snowfall coming down as the Vikings pulled out a miracle victory? In the snow. On the frozen tundra. As it should be.

Biggest snow so far

Turns out the 3.3 inches at MSP Airport is the largest snowfall of the season to date. That's a low bar so far in this winter that's running 14.5 inches below average season snowfall to date, but still significant.

2 to 4

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Our dry fluffy "Orville Redenbacher" type snow fluffed up nicely. The high snow to water content of around 18 to 1 created large high quality stellar dendrites. Snowfall in most towns ranges between 2 and 4 inches.

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Snowfall totals via Twin Cities NWS.

Stellar Dendrites

Check out this remarkable image of what appears to be two stellar dendrites sent along from MPR Member Tom Hicks. Magic indeed.

Stellar dendrites
Image Credit: Akhil Jayaram 

Paul. Several days ago you were talking about the beauty and uniqueness of snowflakes.

On January 11th one of my roommates was walking home from the bus when he spotted “something” on the sleeve of his jacket. He snapped a picture with his iPhone and continued home.

He knew it was a snowflake but until he opened the photo later that night he had no idea how stunning the picture was. The two snowflakes together is fascinating. I can’t tell if the little one is attached to the big one or if they are separate.

The photo is yours to post if you wish.

Sent from Tom Hicks

MPR member

Bitter cold returns

We're the nation's icebox again into Wednesday morning. Wind chill warnings and advisories continue into tomorrow. Seriously. Cold.

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Thawing out this week

We begin the warming trend Wednesday. A minor thaw arrives by the end of the week. This too shall pass.

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NOAA forecast temperatures for MSP via Weather Bell.

Sunday snow?

All the major models suggest some kind of snow event somewhere in the Upper Midwest again by Sunday. It's too early to say where, but the chances are there. This is purely for entertainment at this point 6 days out, but here's the European model output for the Twin Cities for Sunday. This will likely change. Could be Rochester. Could be Duluth. Could be Des Moines.

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Norwegian Met Institute.

Another late January Thaw?

The upper air maps suggest another thaw possible late in the month.

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NOAA

Here's NOAA's 3-4 week temperature outlook product.

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NOAA

Stay warm and stay tuned.