Science

Here we go! Now that we are heading through the second half of February, temperatures overall are starting their trend upwards. Obviously, that doesn’t happen all at once, but certainly comes in spurts and it looks like one of those will move in just in time for your weekend.

This is a question I get more than almost any other; when are we finally done with negative numbers? It’s also a question that I can’t really answer with resounding confidence.

A record number of people are reportedly watching a pair of bald eagles on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resource's popular EagleCam as they care for their eggs this winter. 

Elementary school students at St. Jude on the Lake Catholic School in Mahtomedi are learning about sustainable farming systems by raising fish and growing plants in an aquaponics system. 

A Brooklyn Center woman helped rescue a bald eagle Tuesday after she spotted the bird on the ground and noticed something was a bit off.

About 2,000 residents in central Minnesota were without electricity for a short time Tuesday after a squirrel reportedly caused a power outage. 

Three cougar kittens that were orphaned in Washington state are starting their new lives at The Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, Minnesota.

Amazing as it may sound, it’s been a pretty mild winter so far. The months of December, January and February have ranged roughly 5 degrees above average as a whole which puts us in 21st place for warmest winter. Not exactly groundbreaking, but it does show that temps have generally been around or above average. Sure, we’ve seen a couple of cold snaps including a brief one a few days ago, but what winter doesn’t have ANY cold snaps? I can answer that for you… none! So our next one is on the way, but this one may challenge some of the coldest wind chills of the season so far.

Since our dash a day snow from nearly three weeks ago, it’s been very quiet around here. Because of that tranquility, we were stuck with cloudy skies for just under 11 consecutive days--one of the longest stretches of cloudy weather in years. 

While Minnesota is nice and quiet, many other parts of the country are getting a large dose of winter weather and moisture.  A large storm is pushing through the southern & eastern U.S. midweek leading to a band of heavy snow from Texas to New England as well as heavy rain across the Southeast.

We’re now on day nine with persistent gray skies, so just how much longer will it be before we see the sun? Well, can you handle another day or two? Yep, that’s right. Another 48 hours or so and we might actually get to see the sun again. Not to mention, temperatures could warm into the 40s before the weekend is over. So why have we been so cloudy?

One year ago this week, Minnesota as well as much of the Upper Midwest, were dealing with cold that hadn’t been seen in at least a couple of decades. A massive and extreme pocket of cold air was shoved southward straight out of the North Pole and ended up in Minnesota just 36 hours later. It was this quick movement and heavy snow cover across the Northern Hemisphere that didn’t allow this air to warm as it headed southward, like many arctic outbreaks have before. This lead to the coldest day in the Twin Cities in a good 25 years.