Photo of sunshine on a record warm November 10th day.

This weekend featured a huge change in weather conditions for the area, we went from record highs, to snow and cold temperatures. All of this was in the response of a low pressure system passing to our north. Saturday, a warm front move through in the morning. We started off foggy, but then the fog lifted and skies cleared and southerly winds picked up gusting to 30MPH. Under these conditions highs rose to record warm levels, it was very summer-like and I spend the that day in short sleeves.

 Highs Reported Saturday/Temperatures by 9pm Sunday

70s were widespread completely across the area. The high on my station in West Downtown Rochester was 75.F and a record high temperature of 75.F was set at the Rochester International Airport, completely smashing the one record of 68.F Above the map compares high temperatures on Saturday, to temperatures by 6pm Sunday after the cold front passed through.

Heavy snow squall November 12th 2012

After setting record high values on the systems warm side, the vigorous cold front pushed through. It was characterized by showers, and in some areas thunderstorms. Rainfall amounts were most abundant in the east where over half into the 1.00″ fell in the Preston and Winona areas. Further west less fell, generally a couple to a few tenths. 0.30″ of rain fell at my station with this one. More importantly with this system it brought significant drop in temperatures. Temperatures on Sunday fell from the middle 60s at midnight to the middle 20s by 12am. In Monday, highs were at their coldest levels of the season so far, high temperatures only rose into the middle to upper 20s. this is a over a 40 degree drop in high temperatures from Saturday to Monday. To characterized, it went from being 75.F on Saturday here at my station in Rochester, to a high of 27.F on Monday. This is a 48 degree temperature difference in highs, one of the largest temperature swings I’ve seen in some time! Also new to this season, snow fell for the 1st time this season today, some of the squalls were even quite heavy at times. Accumulations were just a trace area wide, but still, it brought the feeling of Winter to the area. Temperatures tonight will fall to their coldest levels of the season so far in the low to mid 10s. Expect a warm up this week with highs rising back to near 50.F by Wednesday. It will remain dry.