Some cold arctic air is making its way up into the Upper Midwest, and will more than likely bring the Twin Cities metro area the coldest temperatures so far this season. The National Weather Service has now issued a wind chill advisory for most of the state of Minnesota as well as Western Wisconsin. This was put into place due to the fact that the temperatures are predicted to fall below zero during the overnight hours on Tuesday, bringing along with it wind chills that could range anywhere from 25 to 30 below zero.
As for the Twin Cities area, the wind chill advisory is in effect from midnight through noon Tuesday, and the weather service is forecasting a high of only 1 degrees and a low of -7. Luckily the temperatures will warm up a bit on Wednesday with highs near 13 degrees, and on New Year ’s Day, when the temperatures are expected to reach near 20 degrees.
This cold weather is probably a surprise to most residents of Minnesota, since the state has been experiencing an unusually warm December thus far.
The air that is coming will be below zero, and this is the first cold day for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport since December 1st when the low was -3. Overall, the average temperatures for the month was about 26.7 through Sunday, 6.6 degrees above normal and higher than this November’s average temperature of about 25.4.
Motorists should be careful to watch for black ice on the roads by early Tuesday, as that is when the temperatures are expected to drop. Black ice usually forms on the overpasses and bridges where the cold circulates above and below the elevated surface. It can also form on roads where the snow melts from heated automobile undercarriages and exhaust emission, then refreezes later on. Since it can be quite difficult to spot, that is why it is especially dangerous.