Twin Cities just had its latest freeze in 16 years

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]Well, it was a frosty morning in the Twin Cities and across the state [music] warmer air is finally moving in, but we're also going to be looking for some rainfall. Things are getting pretty dry here with just isolated chances.

[00:00:19]So, we reached 32° at MSP, the latest in 16 years. You got to go back to 2010, May 9th then, and it's the only the fifth time we've had a May frost in since the year 2000. So, used to happen much more frequently in May, of course, but still happens once in a while. You still get some cold temperatures in the upper 20s to low 30s metro-wide. So, pretty much everybody not avoiding that frost unless you're in a pretty special spot. And it came off the heels of a very chilly day yesterday. 10 to 20° colder than average yesterday across the state, especially northern Minnesota. They didn't get out of the 30s yesterday for highs. So, yeah, this is a chilly air mass for May, but it can always be worse.

[00:01:01]I give you Wyoming and Colorado. Denver had 4.7 in of snow, their biggest May snowfall in 43 years. So, there is that. 20 in of snow in the higher terrain west of Denver in the mountains. A lot of clouds around again today as that cold upper level low spins off to our northeast. That instability here in the middle of the atmosphere keeping those clouds locked in. You got a March-like air mass, but early August strength sunshine. So, back below normal today by anywhere from 10 to 20° across the state. Just low 50s in southern Minnesota, low 40s barely in the northern part of the state. That is below average by about 13, 14°.

[00:01:42]Temperatures tonight will be in the 30s and 20s once again, but I do think we'll avoid the frost for most of the Twin Cities overnight. Probably mid to upper 30s, but if you're in those outer suburbs outside of the 494 694 loop, I would bring in the plants again, cover them up because it is going to be very close in those areas. Definitely some patchy frost again. But already warmer tomorrow. I think we'll top out in the low 60s, probably into the 60s.

[00:02:05]Southwestern Minnesota, 50s and 40s across northeastern Minnesota.

[00:02:09]And then temperatures Friday jump upward close to 70 across the southern part of state. That'll feel nice. That's above normal. Again, the weekend is looking pretty seasonable. 60s mostly for highs, which is about where we should be. So that cold air will depart once again and this time it's not going to come back at us with a vengeance like it did. We'll just get kind of nicked by some cool air again on Mother's Day, but overall warmer air builds eastward here as we head into next week. We're talking about 70s by Tuesday and potentially 80s here.

[00:02:37]Most of the models are pushing us into the 80s at least a couple days by late next week. So just got to hang on. I know we always say that in the spring.

[00:02:45]But yeah, there is those more consistently warmer temperatures, 70s and 80s much of next week and those are above normal actually. So we'll kind of make up for this temperature deficit we have now. But total rainfall through Monday, pretty scant. Most of that to the south where they really need it.

[00:03:00]We've been talking about the exceptional drought in the southeast. But just some scattered very light precip here for Minnesota. We need about an inch per week to stay average this time of year and it's important during the growing season now that it's started. Just some isolated showers tomorrow with that disturbance and then another disturbance kind of a clipper system coming through Friday night and early Saturday which will touch off another round of maybe some spotty showers for us once again.

[00:03:23]So yeah, you might need to have water that garden if it survived the frost of course. 52 today.

[00:03:29]Temperatures tonight in the upper 30s, low 60s tomorrow. Again, an isolated shower but those will be very few and far between. Warmer on Friday. Again, an isolated or spotty shower chance Friday night into mostly early Saturday and then I think we'll clear out. Not a bad day Saturday. Mother's Day will be a little cooler but not bad, low 60s. It does look dry and then temperatures are warming up. Next chance of maybe some thunder thanks to some warmer air moves in Tuesday.