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We're nearly a third of the way through our cold weather months, and the rest of the winter is looking just as cold and snowy here in Minnesota.

Trying to predict what Mother Nature is going to do in Minnesota can be tricky at best. (I mean, who would have predicted that we'd hit 60 degrees and then be subjected to 16 tornado touchdowns in Minnesota, just 10 days before Christmas back on December 15, 2021?!?)

Having said that, though, there ARE some trends that meteorologists look at that can give us a fairly accurate prediction of what might be on tap for the rest of our winter here in 2022.

According to a recent post from MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner, Minnesota is currently experiencing a 'classic La Niña' winter pattern. He explains that when a La Niña event happens, as one did last fall over the Pacific Ocean, it can produce weather patterns we've already experienced:

La Niña events show about a 70 to 80 percent correlation historically with colder and snowier than average winters in Minnesota. They also have a bias toward milder-than-average fall weather.

So far, that tracks with what's happened. As Huttner noted, our months of September, October, November were several degrees milder than average in the North Star State. And, our January has been colder than average (about 5 degrees colder). Though our snowfall of 21.8 inches in Rochester is only a half-inch below average, the rest appears to go along with his prediction.

If that pattern continues to hold, Huttner believes we'll see similar below-average temperatures across the Land of 10,000 Lakes, with near-average (to slightly above average) snowfall the rest of this winter-- a classic La Niña winter, as he said.

Meanwhile, it should be too surprising that our January has been colder than average, considering that Rochester IS one of the Coldest Cities in the Country. Do you know which other cities made the list too? Keep scrolling to check out them-- there are some familiar names listed!

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BRRRR: The 15 Coldest Cities in America

You live here. You know how cold it gets, and by now you're probably used to it, but you should probably brace yourself because the National Weather Service issued a La Niña advisory last month and said, "La Niña winters in the southern tier of the US tend to be warmer and drier, while the northern tier and Canada tend to be even colder.

The list below is from Niche. They put together their list of the coldest cities in the county by looking at which ones had "the coldest average low temperatures during the winter months." Keep scrolling to see the 15 coldest cities in the United States.

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