Record high temperature recorded in Minnesota on Christmas Day
MINNEAPOLIS — Monday's gloomy and gray Christmas feels right in line with the rest of the unusual weather the past weekend.
"This is a warm system in a cold time of year, and it's really noticeable for folks that are probably expecting winter weather," said Jake Beitlich, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Beitlich says the low temperature on Christmas Eve, which took place at midnight, tied the highest temperature ever recorded on that day in the Twin Cities. As temperatures then rose during the day, the record was shattered.
Then, Christmas Day broke records, too. Temperatures rose to 54 degrees at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, breaking the record of 51 degrees in 1922. High temp records were also broken in St. Cloud and Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Christmas Day record high temperatures were set at all 3 of our climate sites.
— NWS Twin Cities (@NWSTwinCities) December 26, 2023
MSP Airport: High of 54, breaks record of 51 set in 1922.
St Cloud MN: High of 48, breaks record of 47 set in 1922.
Eau Claire WI: High of 53, breaks record of 45 set in 1940 & 1994. #mnwx #wiwx
The warm temperatures were coupled with rain.
"We came here for a white Christmas, and this is a gray Christmas," said Swati Goorha, who's visiting family in Eden Prairie from New Jersey. "The lake was all frozen and we could actually walk on the lake last [year], and this time it's quite weird, this weather."
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Some areas around the metro got up to three inches of rain.
Beitlich says the ground can actually soak it all in since it's not frozen solid.
"Looking out through the end of the month, we really don't cool off that much so we could set the warmest December on record here in the Twin Cities," he said.
We asked the NWS if this weather indicates anything about the outlook for the rest of the winter.
"I can't say for sure that we're going to be cold in March, April, May, but it's still only late December," Beitlich said. "Here in the Twin Cities, we get storms out till April so I'm not going to say we're going to be in the clear as far as winter weather goes. I'm not going to say it's going to be backloaded."
Another record was set Sunday, too. St. Cloud saw its most Christmas Eve precipitation ever.