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First freeze in forecast

How low can we go? Well, the National Weather Service says temperatures “flirting with the mid-20’s” are expected to strike the Turtle Mountain region Friday evening through Saturday morning.

“We expect widespread sub-freezing temps across all of western and central North Dakota,” said Zach Hargrove, Bismarck NWS meteorologist. “It’s not looking great. The latest temp forecast even has southwest and south central North Dakota barely above freezing.”

Minot won’t be spared, says the NWS. Tonight’s forecast calls for a low around 31 degrees with widespread frost expected before 8:00 a.m. Friday. Frost is expected to settle over the region between 11:00 p.m Friday and 2:00 a.m. Saturday. A Frost Advisory, even Freeze Warnings, are likely to be issued as early as today.

“The winner is the Dunseith area, if you can say that,” said Hargrove. “It’ll maybe be 26 degrees there Friday night and Saturday morning. I don’t like it anymore than anyone else does.”

While freezing temperatures are not totally unexpected at this time of year, the drop in the thermometer is still a bit out of the norm. Even the daytime highs have been below average.

“It is different from the last couple of years but it is not an abnormal pattern,” said Hargrove. “Daytime highs are usually in the 60’s and 70’s.”

The Minot weather outlook calls for a high today of about 50 degrees with Friday’s high in the upper 40’s. According to Hargrove, the reason for the lower than usual temps is the upper level jet stream that has dipped into the northern U.S., bringing with it cooler air out of Canada.

“Couple that with a cold front and it will kind of kick off this trend of cooler temperatures the next couple of days,” remarked Hargrove. “It looks like we might rebound a little bit next week. We’ll have to see how it all shapes up.”

Any warm-up is expected to be slight. The Climate Prediction Center says the Minot region can expect colder than normal temperatures through the first week of October. Historically, daytime highs during that time frame reach into the low 60’s with nighttime lows in the upper 30’s.

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