Winter weather in Twin Cities (Minneapolis: house, moving to, stations)

[ionosphere]

We are moving to Twin Cities later this month. I have been looking at the weather there and am surprised how warm it is. It doesn't normally snow by Thanksgiving there? I was promised that I would always have a white Christmas there. Is that true? I want COLD as promised. Have had enough of whimpy Seattle weather.

[Ghengis]

In the past 110 years, there has been at least 1" of snow in the Twin Cities on Christmas 72% of the time. But 2 of the past 6 Christmas' have been mostly snowless.

White Christmas, present and past | StarTribune.com

the chance of an inch of snow on the ground on Thanksgiving has historically been about 1 in 3 but much less than that in recent years.

[slan490]

The Midwest states are like any other state...weather patterns vary.

I'm in Olympia WA and I totally understand being burnt out on the weather here. The last few years have been hard...not in a catastrophic way but so monotonous..this last spring I was out of my mind with boredom and depression because of the gloom and cold (not because of cold in winter...cold damp conditions for too freaking' long!)

I visit WI and 2009 we visited in early Nov. and there was 18 inches of snow and the high didn't get above 18-20. Last year we were there in January and there was no snow...I didn't even wear a coat.

I realize this doesn't exactly relate to MN but I think it's common to have different weathern patterns.

[dravogadro]

Supposedly the long-term forecasts have recently been revised and we should be colder than normal.

[uptown_urbanist]

The weather everywhere is wacky these days, and who knows what new records and patterns we may continue to see, but I think the odds are that you will find the winter to be sufficiently cold, and probably sufficiently snowy, even if there is not snow on the ground on Christmas. And just today on the radio I caught part of a report saying that they're now saying that the latest thinking is that it will be a colder than average winter, even if so far the last remnants of fall have been warm.

[golfgal]

For the most part over the past 20 years we have had pretty dry winters. Growing up in the 70-80's we always have had a lot of snow all winter long. We've had that kind of snow only about 5 years out of the past 20. Last year we had 12" of snow at our house total. The year before that we had 80". Mid November is the average for the first real snowfall that sticks. Doesn't look like that is going to happen this year.

I remember one year in the late 70's where most of the news stations were having a contest to predict the first snowfall because it was so late--it came Thanksgiving weekend.

[Minnesota Spring]

Yeah, they were also saying last fall that the winter of 11-12 was supposed to be a cold and nasty one, but it turned out to be the complete opposite, so I don't know what to believe when they do these long range forecast. It seems that in the past few decades the first snow that sticks here in SW Minnesota has been early to mid December.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by ionosphere

We are moving to Twin Cities later this month. I have been looking at the weather there and am surprised how warm it is. It doesn't normally snow by Thanksgiving there? I was promised that I would always have a white Christmas there. Is that true? I want COLD as promised. Have had enough of whimpy Seattle weather.

You'll get to experience cold in January. Probably earlier than that, but January tends to always be cold for at least the majority of the month. Two years ago, when I last flew up for a winter weekend, it got down to almost -20F. It felt good. The coldest I've ever experienced in Atlanta is 11F, which ain't cold enough.

[Glenfield]

It's more cold here rather than snowy. What snow falls though tends to stay around until spring rather than melt like it does in Denver.

[StilltheSame]

There may not be snow but there will be plenty of cold weather. Minneapolis will not disappoint.