Siberian Air Brings Big Shivers To Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A week ago, we were wrapping up a six-day stretch of above-average temperatures and some melting.

But Wednesday brought a different story and a different season, after officially bottoming out at minus 9 degrees in the morning.

And as cold as it is Wednesday, it's not a record. February has been cold, with way more days below average than above -- and Wednesday was the coldest.

Lows from the Weather Watcher Network were well-below zero, with a minus-33-degree reading at Crane Lake in the Boundary Waters.

Wednesday is the 19th day of sub-zero temps in the metro.

Wind chills were in the minus 20s and minus 30s Wednesday morning. A wind chill of minus 49 degrees was recorded in Grand Marais

By this time last year, 42 of our 51 sub-zero lows had happened. We still had nine more to go.

We'll wake up Thursday morning to temperatures as cold as or colder than they were Wednesday morning, but with less wind.

Colder-than-average weather won't quit until next month, as big, cold storms get locked in at jet-stream level, stretching from the Great Lakes to Europe.

That'll mean more snow for the Northeast, too -- and just nuisance amounts here.

We've had just two feet of snow so far this winter, a foot-and-a-third below average, making for the only non-wintry part of our winter

And, in case you're wondering, this cold is not the Polar Vortex, which remains in Canada.

This air originated in Siberia.