Week in review: Record high temperatures on Thursday

A warm front pushed through Minnesota on Thursday, bringing along with it record-breaking temperatures for many locations across the state.

Some parts of southwest Minnesota saw temperature soar into the 60s.  The highest temperature in the state this day was from an automated station near Canby in Yellow Medicine County that recorded 63 degrees.  Around the area, it was 62 degrees at Marshall, and 61 at both Milan and Madison.  According to the Minnesota Climatology Working Group, there has never been a 60 degree temperature recorded during the first week of January in Minnesota's modern climate record.  The warmest it has ever been during this time period in January before Thursday was 59 degrees, occurring on January 7, 2003 in Amboy, MN.  The all-time record high temperature for any day in January is 69 degrees, occurring January 24, 1981 in Montevideo.

The warmth also extended across the Arrowhead of Minnesota.  Duluth, International Falls, and Brainerd all saw record high temperatures.

With a bit of cloud cover, the Twin Cities fell short of breaking the record of 47 degrees set back in 1885, over 125 years ago!  The temperature climbed to 45 degrees.  Since the beginning of January, we have been running well above average for daytime temperatures.  In some cases, over 20 degrees.  We normally should be in the low 20s this time of the year.

The Twin Cities followed up this historic day for many parts of Minnesota with another day of mild weather.  Just when you thought 45 degrees was warm, the mercury climbed another degree on Friday to 46 degrees.  Bill McAuliffe (@billmcauliffe) of the Star Tribune posted this note on Twitter:

6 days into Jan Twin Cities, first back-to-back highs 45 or higher since 2006. (Those were Jan 26-27.) #stribwx #mnwinter

The warmth is not unprecedented.  According to the National Weather Service in Chanhassen on this day (January 7th) in 2003:

Record warmth over Minnesota. Many places reach the 50's including the Twin Cities. St. James hit 59 and the Twin Cities reached 51. Nine golf courses were open in the Twin Cities and 100 golfers were already at the Sundance Golf Course in Maple Grove in the morning.

RS