Weather – March 1, 2024

Warm and cold air masses will strive for dominance over our landscape in March

By Northern News Now meteorologist Dave Anderson

We northern Minnesota kids in the early 70’s were big fans of AWA wrestling as seen on TV every weekend. We’d go around slapping Baron Von Raschke’s claw hold on each other and wonder why it didn’t really incapacitate anyone like it did in the ring. Probably the same reason Mr. Spock’s Vulcan neck pinch never put anybody to sleep. Anyway, the scariest bogey man of them all was Mad Dog Vachon. Imagine our dismay when the AWA did a live show in Virginia and the kids who got to go said Mad Dog was very nice and friendly to all the children after the performance.

I tend to think of this year’s winter as an atmospheric wrestling match. Super El Nino has only been challenged twice by the Polar Vortex and the Vortex knocked Nino down only for a few days. The reign of SEL does have an expiration date, though. There are signs it will last through March and fade away by April. That’ll probably be too late for any real winter around here.

Last month, the long-range forecasters hinted that a cool down would strike in February but that didn’t last long. That month was close to 13 degrees warmer than normal in reality. So, take March’s forecast with a grain of salt because the long-range crew still says next month will become three degrees cooler than normal. They also think we could finally manage 5 to 15 inches of snow which I still think will be too little too late.

March 2024 may have trends that look like these: the 1st to 10th will be a mixture of sun, flurries, cold and mild yo-yo trips; the 11th to 15th will be warm enough for sloppy rain and snow mixes, the 16th to 20th may get a cold snap with a decent snow chance, the 21st to 27th will go back to rain and snow mixes while the 28th to 31st gets another cold shot.

As we go into the summer, El Nino’s sister La Nina is expected to take over and that should induce a cooling trend. We’ll chat more about that next month after El Nino retires his atmospheric wrestling association championship belt.

Friday

Sunny, with a high near 51. Breezy, with a south wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Friday Night

Mostly cloudy, with a low around 23. Breezy, with a southwest wind 10 to 15 mph becoming north after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.

Saturday

A chance of snow after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 40. Breezy, with a northeast wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Saturday Night

A chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 24. Breezy, with an east wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Sunday

A chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 46. Breezy, with an east wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph.

Sunday Night

Rain likely. Cloudy, with a low around 30. Breezy, with a southeast wind around 20 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph.

Monday

Rain, possibly mixed with snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 43. Breezy, with a southeast wind around 20 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph.