Bundle up. It's a winter tradition here in Minnesota but a touch unusual over the Thanksgiving holiday. This cold weather isn't going anywhere any time soon according to WCCO-TV Chief Meteorologist Chris Shaffer.
"This is an unusual cold snap," says Shaffer who spoke to Tom Hauser on the WCCO Morning News Wednesday. "Our highs Friday through Sunday will be around 20. Let me get a little perspective for you here. The coldest average high we have here in Minnesota in the Twin Cities is 23 degrees and that's in the middle of January."
It's also been quite a while since we've had this type of cold weather over Thanksgiving.
"We're not going to be warming up above freezing, above 32 degrees, for possibly a couple of weeks," Shaffer says. "If that holds, we haven't had this cold of air since 2014. It's been 10 years. So again, like I said, if you're complaining this time it's justified."
As far as holiday travel, there could be some light snow Wednesday across southwestern Minnesota, but the coast looks clear for the time being across the rest of the state, including the Twin Cities, over the holiday weekend.
Across the rest of the country, if you're flying or driving, there are a few issues expected.
A storm system that moved across the West Coast was forecast to bring heavy snow Wednesday to the Intermountain West, including the Rockies in Colorado, the Bitterroot Range in Idaho and Montana, and the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
For Thanksgiving Day, forecasters expect clear weather over the western two-thirds of the country but a mix of rain and snow from Michigan and Ohio through New England.
Chris Shaffer's Weather Forecast
Wednesday: Cloudy with scattered flurries. High: 29. North wind 5-10 mph.
Wednesday Night: Cloudy, low: 20. NW wind 5-10 mph.
Thanksgiving: Cloudy and breezy with scattered flurries. High: 27.
- No big travel concerns but no heat with highs near 20 this weekend.
- Average high and low is 36 and 22.
Thanksgiving weather history
Historically speaking, Thanksgiving weather in Minnesota can range anywhere from balmy to brutal.
The record high of 62 in the Twin Cities was observed twice, in 1914 and 1922. More recently, the thermometer climbed to 60 in 2012. It was also 59 in 2011. Temps into the 50s have occurred only 11 times in the last 150 years of record keeping in the state according the the Minnesota Climatology office.
Want cold? We've got cold too. In 1985, the temperature fell to -34 F at Argyle and -32 F at International Falls, ahead of a huge winter storm taking aim at the region. In the Twin Cities, we only climbed to a high of 7 in 1930 and 10 in 2014. But the record goes all the way back to 1872 when it was a very nippy -1 in the Twin Cities.
Historically, about one in three Thanksgivings have at least one inch of snow on the ground in the Twin Cities, and the deepest snow cover measured was 10 inches in both 1921 and 1983. It occasionally rains on Thanksgiving Day as well. In 1896, a two-day event in the Twin Cities doused Thanksgiving travelers with nearly three inches of rain. The snowiest actual "day" for Thanksgiving was 5 inches in 1970. In 1993, we got 4.3 inches in the Twin Cities.
And yes, climate change has affected the holiday. Thanksgiving weather is changing. Since 1872, the average the mean daily temperature in the Twin Cities has increased by about 7.5 degrees F, with over half of that increase coming since 1970.