Brandon Weatherz: Warm and dry weekend ahead

Our Friday starts off with most areas in the 20s under a patchwork of clouds. An area of light lake and terrain enhanced snow has brought a dusting to localized areas near and north of Duluth early this morning. This is expected to continue through the commute hours but taper off by mid-morning. We’ll see times of both clouds and sun today. An east wind will keep areas near Lake Superior slightly cooler today with highs along the North Shore staying around freezing. Apart from this, highs reach mid-30s to low 40s today. Tonight is partly cloudy with lows in low to mid-20s.

As a reminder, Duluth’s daily normal temps for February 2nd are a high of 21° and a low of 2°. We’ll easily top off 15° above our average high and the low will be near 25° above normal. Even so, today is the coolest in the current forecast. Saturday will see highs in low to mid-40s across the Northland with a light southeast wind keeping the North Shore in the 30s. The warmth will also be accompanied by mostly sunny skies.

Sunday sees us into low to upper 40s with temperatures approaching daily record highs. Similar warmth repeats each day through the middle of next week. Dry weather persists until Thursday when scattered rain showers are possible. We should cool down a touch on the other side of that system for next weekend, but as of now, temps still look to remain on the warm side of average. That gives us an end in sight to the 40s, but a return of seasonable cold is still evading us.

Today: Times of clouds and sun. High 37. E wind 5-10 mph.

Tonight: Partly cloudy. High 26. SE wind 5-10 mph.

Tomorrow: Mostly sunny. High 40. E wind 2-8 mph.

Tomorrow night: Partly cloudy. Low 25. NE wind 2-8 mph.

Sunday: Mostly sunny. High 44. W wind 2-8 mph.

Monday: Mostly cloudy. High 43. SE wind 2-8 mph.

Tuesday: Partly cloudy. High 45. S wind 5-10 mph.

Wednesday: Mostly cloudy. High 43. SE wind 5-10 mph.

Thursday: Cloudy and breezy with scattered showers. High 42. E wind 10-15 mph. Chance of rain: 40%