Winter Weather Advisory in Effect for Twin Cities Region

Snow, sleet, freezing rain could make travel difficult.

  The National Weather Service has issued a winter-weather advisory for Hennepin County. Freezing rain, snow and sleet are possible this afternoon and tonight throughout the Twin Cities region as the outskirts of Winter Storm Luna pass through the area. That could make for a difficult commute Monday morning. Dakota and Washington counties, as well as western Wisconsin, have been upgraded to a winter storm warning, and could see several inches of snow accumulate. But some wintry precipitation is possible anywhere in the region.  Weather service officials are urging caution on the roads. The advisory is expected to expire at midnight.

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Editor's Notebook

VIDEO: How to Have Fun With This Week's Cold Weather

How can you freeze boiling water in an instant?

I think I can now demonstrate to my friends from Austin, TX why Minneapolis is the cooler city—no pun intended. In Austin, you can't instantly freeze near-boiling water (or coffee, or soup, etc., etc.) when it gets inhumanly cold out.  The National Weather Service predicts wind chill values will stay below zero through Wednesday night. Conventional wisdom around here holds that this trick won't work well unless the temperature is really cold, in the minus 20's. Unfortunately, the temperature on Monday night in our part of Minneapolis was hovering in the negative single digits. Searching for a way to get the same dramatic effect my coworker Mike Schoemer achieved on his back deck in St. Michael, MN (see video above), I thought I would be …

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James Sanna

8:52 am on Wednesday, January 23, 2013

From a Twitter follower: "I'd guess something about energy, hence more movement, in water molecules. Near-boiling molecules want to fly apart into gas...Energetic molecules do fly apart when released from container, then the smaller particles freeze immediately? That's my guess." Anyone have more specifics?   more ›

Subzero Temperatures Headed This Way

Wind chills could reach dangerous lows on Sunday and Monday nights.

  There's cold, and there's Minneapolis cold. The Twin Cities area is about to get the kind of freeze-your-face-off Arctic temperatures that give Midwesterners their reputation for hardiness. The temperature is expected to start dropping Saturday afternoon; Monday could be the first day in four years with a high temperature of less than zero. Sunday and Monday nights could see lows of about 8 below zero, and with west-northwest winds of up to 11 mph, well, let's just say "freeze-your-face-off" might not be an exaggeration. The combination of wind and cold could equal a wind chill of about 27 below zero, and at that temperature, according to the National Weather Service, exposed skin is subject to frostbite in less than 30 minutes. By the …

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