Temperatures could hit 40s, maybe 50s next week

After two cold days with highs only hitting about 10 degrees, Freeborn and Mower counties will soon feel the heat, and it has many people thinking spring.

Today and Thursday’s highs could only reach 10 degrees — about 25 degrees below average— but the weather is about to change for the warmer come Friday.

“Friday starts our warm up and it stays right on into the middle of the month,” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Jeff Boyme said.

Wind chills are expected to near minus 20 tonight and tomorrow. Then Friday’s temperatures should be in the mid-30s, which is on par Mower County’s average of about 33 degrees this time of year. Temperatures early next week look to be in the mid-30s to low-40s.

Boyme said there is a rapid rise in temperatures this year. Several forecasts call for temperatures to hit 55 next Wednesday and 50 next Thursday.

Boyme cited the increasing sun and the spring equinox on March 20 as helping the weather turn warmer.

“Each day we’re increasing our day length anywhere from about two to four minutes a day,” Boyme said. “And the sun’s getting higher and higher in the sky, so that’s going to help warm up the soils and the grounds.”

He said the warmer weather, at least temperatures in the upper 30s and 40s — a little above the 30-year normal temperature for this time of year — should stick around through the middle of March.

Some are even more optimistic. MPR meteorologist Paul Huttner wrote in a blog Monday that “The winter of 2014-15 as we know it ends Friday,” citing jet stream patterns and temperature forecast maps.

But the weather service is being more cautious.

Boyme could not predict further than March 20 and said the area could see anything from continued warm weather to another cold spell. Boyme made note of 2012, when there was a record warm March followed by a cold April.

“(We’ll get) at least a taste of spring right now,” Boyme said. “We can always have more cold snaps come in.”

Snow could still return, and many will remember May 2013, when a snowstorm dropped 9-plus inches across southern Minnesota.

Boyme noted the next few days will also be dryer than normal, though there is a 20 percent chance of snow on Sunday, and in the southeast of the United States there could be heavy rains from March 10 through the 16.

Mower County saw less snow on average this year than previous years. Boyme quoted about 50 to 55 inches of snow for an entire season in previous years, where this year only received about 26.7 inches of snow for the season thus far. Most surrounding areas saw similar snowfalls, such as Albert Lea with 26.2 inches, and Clairmont with 26.9 inches. Grand Meadow, on the other hand, saw about 40 inches this year.

Boyme said much of the snow has come from Canada this year, which has been lighter, less wet snow, compared to previous years.