Minnesota weather outlook suggests warmer-than-average autumn

MINNEAPOLIS — If Friday's cloudy and cooler weather has you excited for autumn, you're not alone.

The start of meteorological fall, Sept. 1, is just about two weeks away and the Climate Prediction Center just released their outlook for the season.

Typically over September, October and November, the Twin Cities has an average temperature of about 49 degrees. If you remember last fall, conditions were well above average, with an average temperature of about 53 degrees.

Fall of 2023 was also wetter than average around the metro, with more than 10 inches of rainfall, compared to the average of 7.21 inches.

Like it or not, October also typically brings our first snow of the season with about 7.5 inches of snow through the end of November. One of the more shocking stats of the season — from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, we lose about four hours of daylight.

A driving factor of this year's forecast is the fact we're transitioning away from El Nino into a La Nina. Currently, it's in a neutral phase, but La Nina is likely by October.

According to the Climate Prediction Center, it is more likely that we're going to be warmer than average, not just across Minnesota and Wisconsin, but really most of the country.

But when it comes to precipitation in our part of the world, it's a little tougher to decipher what La Nina is going to mean for us. So it's more of a toss up with the drier conditions looking to stay farther south.