Forecast Snow Amounts Jan 23-25

Grand Rapids 1-4"
Grand Forks, ND 12-15"
Twin Cities 1-4"
Duluth, North Shore of Lake Superior 5-10"
International Falls 4-6"
Brainerd 2-5"
Bemidji 3-7"
Ely 1-3"

Update on Weekend Precipitation (Jan 23-24)

The bulk of the weekend storm will be focused on the eastern Dakotas where a foot or more of snow will be possible. In northern Minnesota, my best guess right now would be that we'll get a mixture of light rain and snow that will start Saturday afternoon and continue on and off through late Sunday. By Sunday evening, more cold air will work into the system, changing all the rain to steady light snow. Expect 1-4" accumulation Sunday evening through Monday in Grand Rapids. Temperatures will likely hover in the 30-36 degree range most of the weekend.

After the system passes, I would expect another three or four weeks of dry weather based mostly the fact that late January through mid February is climatologically the driest part of the year (although there are always exceptions).

Warm Weather Continues, Rain/Snow Storm this Weekend

The weather pattern this past week has looked like a rather typical for a winter with El Nino. Arctic Air is locked away in far northern Canada and Alaska, and the storm track is across the southern U.S. The forecasts for this coming week do not look quite as warm as they had looked earlier, but we will still have above-average temperatures in the 20s and 30s.



By this weekend, a storm system will be moving into the central U.S. Initially, with a lack of cold air, this system may produce a mixture of snow, rain/drizzle or freezing rain/drizzle in Minnesota. The combination of mixed precipitation would change to snow as colder air works into the system. This system had earlier looked like a big rainmaker as far north as southern Manitoba, but now it looks to be more snow than rain. Wherever this storm hits hardest, snow amounts would exceed a foot. There's still some chance the storm could stay south of our area, but we'll most likely get our first accumulating snow of 2010.

After next weekend (Jan 23-24), temperatures will return to near normal.

Grooming Update

Amen Trail groomed January 6th; Sugar Hills January 10th; Alder Pond January 12th; Cowhorn and River Road the 14th. The lights are not working at MPL trail. The snow conditions have been good for skiing, enjoy!

Warmer weather (thaws) this week, RAIN next week

Daytime temperatures will start to climb above freezing this week, particularly on Wednesday (13th) and perhaps again this weekend (Jan. 16-17).

Next week will likely be even warmer with both daytime highs and nighttime lows above freezing before the end of next week. We will also have a good chance of rain or drizzle during this time. Weather is usually pretty tough to predict that far ahead, but the signals are very strong this time. If the weather turns out as predicted, we will probably lose most of our snowcover, which means any outdoor recreation based on natural snow will come to an end. Therefore, it would be a good idea to try to do those things (skiing, snowmobiling, etc.) this week.

January Thaw Next Week

The Arctic weather we've been having will depart the area this weekend (Jan 9-10). We should be seeing an extended period (at least a week) of mild weather with high temperatures occasionally reaching above freezing. No significant snow is in the forecast for the foreseeable future.

Ski Conditions - New Year's Day 2010

Most trails in Itasca County have been groomed this week, except Thistledew. Scenic State Park and McCarthy Beach State Park trails were groomed and ICC trails were packed.