MPR’s Chris Roberts talks with meteorologist Pat Flowers about the record-breaking cold temperatures across the state. Flowers says a warmup is coming…in July.
The state record low temperature in Minnesota was recorded at Tower, Minnesota on February 2, 1996. The low was -60 degrees. That was also the coldest temperature ever recorded east of the Mississippi River. The Twin Cities hit a century low of -32 degrees.
CHRIS: Ridiculously cold Friday in early February. And you've heard several times about the cold weather. Let me run down some temperatures right now. Some current temperatures around the region will give you a feeling for how this frigid weather has really taken over.
In Saint Cloud, fair skies, minus 37 degrees. The wind chill down to minus 49. International Falls reporting clear skies, minus 45. The wind chill, minus 68. In Duluth, under clear skies, minus 39. The wind chill, minus 61. In Fargo. fair, and minus 32 degrees. The wind chill, minus 57. And in the Twin Cities, minus 31, under clear skies. And let's just stop talking about the wind chill.
Meteorologist Pat Flowers joins us now, hopefully, to give us news of a record warming trend that's going to overtake this cold weather.
PAT FLOWERS: Hang on until July.
[LAUGHTER]
When it gets this cold, it doesn't matter anymore, the wind chill. It just doesn't matter. Anything below about minus 15 or minus 20, you just kind go, it's cold. I want to stay out of it.
CHRIS: Absolutely. Did we break any records?
PAT FLOWERS: Oh, we certainly did. There were records that were dropping right and left statewide. International Falls, for example, hit 45 below at 5:45. I didn't see their later numbers. But I know for sure they went a little bit colder than that, which means they set a record for International Falls.
We set a record low here for this century in the Twin Cities area by hitting the low. This morning, it was pushing negative 31 or 32. It may have gotten a little colder than that. That was the last I saw. And that means that we really were as cold as it's been in quite some time. You'd have to go back into the pioneer records to find colder temperatures than what we had this morning, which is a stretch.
CHRIS: I guess the bad news is that in the Twin Cities tonight, we could break that record low for this century set last night.
PAT FLOWERS: That's right. It looks like tonight's going to be another cold night. This is one of those nights for block heaters and fireplaces, really. You just don't want to-- if you want your car to run in the morning, you got to plug it in or you've got to get it in a garage somewhere that's at least somewhat warm.
But we're looking at a low tonight, probably in the minus 30 to 35 range below zero. And the outlying suburbs could get as cold as 40 below. I know when I got up this morning, and I live up on the north side of town, I looked at my thermometer and it was reading over 40 below, and I just closed the door at that point and said, I don't really want to know anymore.
CHRIS: Same situation around the rest of the state.
PAT FLOWERS: Yeah. It's going to be bitterly cold again tonight. The good news is that we'll see a warm up tomorrow up to a whole whopping 5 below zero. And I think once we get through today and tomorrow, we're going to be through the two coldest days that we've had in a long time. And then we're going to see it start to warm up going into next week.
The jet stream is finally going to change and give us a break from this and bring a little bit more normal type weather to us beginning of middle next week.
CHRIS: All right. Well, thank you very much, Pat.
PAT FLOWERS: Thank you, Chris.
CHRIS: Meteorologist Pat Flowers. During the Cold War, nothing was more horrible than the thought of a nuclear--
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