Paul Huttner with weather details for July 6, 2022

CHRIS FARRELL: A wind storm with gusts up to 85 miles an hour blew through South Dakota, southern Minnesota, and Iowa yesterday. That's Tuesday. And the evening sky across the region-- there was this unreal shade of yellow and orange. So what is going on? To get the answers, let's get all the details from MPR's chief meteorologist Paul Huttner. Paul. Always good to talk to you.

PAUL HUTTNER: Oh yeah. Good to hear your voice again, my friend. Thanks. And what a night. What a night. From severe weather to that just surreal sunset across Minnesota last night.

CHRIS FARRELL: OK, so let's start with that windstorm. Give us the details. I mean, that was enough strength of that wind to do some damage.

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah. And it's what we call a derecho. Even kind of a super derecho with this one because derecho by definition, severe winds over a path 240 miles long, gusts of at least 58. This thing went 800 miles, Chris, from west central South Dakota through southwest Minnesota, Iowa, through parts of Wisconsin, and even to the Chicago area by late last night where downed trees in Crystal Lake, which is a far northwest suburbs.

Gusts as high as 91 in South Dakota. I saw a lot of 80 plus mile an hour wind gusts, even 70s in southwest Minnesota. So that was the storm, but it's part of a bigger pattern that we call a Ring of Fire pattern, with all respect to Johnny Cash, right? That hot and humid heat dome.

We hit 90 yesterday, day 11 in the Twin Cities. We were on the northern edge of that. It was close to 100 in much of Iowa with heat index values way over 100. And around the northern edge of that heat dome, which set up over the Central US, that's where the jet stream rides, you've got all that moisture.

Dew points in the 70s, even 80s in Iowa yesterday. That is Amazon jungle type humidity, and the storms like to fire there. So they formed in South Dakota, raced across southwestern Minnesota and produced all that wind damage. We call that the Ring of Fire. It's a very favorable location as storms roll around the periphery of that intense heat dome, Chris.

CHRIS FARRELL: And that Johnny Cash singing "Ring of Fire," boy, that-- I'm sorry. And now I have that in the back of my mind. I can just hear it.

PAUL HUTTNER: It burns, burns, burns.

CHRIS FARRELL: Yes. So drought, is-- what you've been describing, is drought coming back to at least parts of Minnesota?

PAUL HUTTNER: You know, it's been creeping in, especially to the southern parts of Minnesota, from the Twin Cities, south. Abnormally dry conditions and the drought monitor, even a sliver of moderate drought in southern Minnesota. But here's the great news from last night. Those storms dumped significant rainfall totals.

We had five inches in Albert Lea, which of course, was flash flood material, and they had those warnings out last night. But a lot of places got heavy rains that didn't cause flash flooding, which is great news for crops. You talk about a million dollar rain? This might have been a billion dollar rain this time of year across parts of southern Minnesota.

Austin had 2 and 3/4 inches. Blue Earth, a little over two. Worthington, an inch and 3/4. Saint James, an inch. Rochester, an inch.

So that belt along in either side of I-90 and southern Minnesota, which is a sea of corn and soybeans, got a lot of good soaking rain last night. And boy, they needed it, Chris, because the crops were trending dry.

CHRIS FARRELL: Paul, I've been really waiting for this segment here because I just have to ask you. What was your reaction to the Supreme Court ruling about the EPA?

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah. Well, like a lot of people, and I've been reading about a lot of experts' reactions too. Basically if the EPA can't regulate the fossil fuel industry and transition toward cleaner power, that's obviously terrible on the surface, but a lot of experts are saying that it doesn't impact state regulations. So states like California can make their own regulations. States like Minnesota.

Market forces, of course, as you're familiar with, still putting a lot of pressure on coal. Coal, of course, has been in the decline. Renewables have been on the increase. And we reported on this on "Climate Cast," Chris, solar power is now the cheapest form of electric power in history. It's about half the cost of coal-generated power per kilowatt hour.

So the economics are still pushing in the direction of that transition toward greener energy. Wind and solar power is now 25% of all power in Minnesota produced every year and in several other states. And renewables and battery storage are moving forward quickly.

But Chris, this is all in an environment where we still need to go much faster to reach those 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius global goals for Earth's temperature rise. So the decision is certainly significant, Chris, but there are still opportunities for market forces and at the state level to move forward on cleaner energy and climate.

CHRIS FARRELL: OK, so in the-- we got a little bit of time left here. So back to Minnesota and the weather. What can we expect for the rest of the week, the weekend?

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, classic summer weather. We've got some clouds around today mixed with sun. We're mainly in the 70s, low 80s. It's going to be mostly sunny to partly cloudy right into Saturday. Mid-80s for high, southern Minnesota. 70s, north.

Dew points in the 60s, so a little sticky. A pretty classic kind of dog days summer forecast, Chris. Next chance, real chance of storms come Saturday night into Sunday. So hey, get out there and enjoy it. We wait all year for this kind of summer weather in Minnesota. It is finally here.

CHRIS FARRELL: I will be outside. I'm going to do what you tell me to do.

PAUL HUTTNER: [LAUGHS]

CHRIS FARRELL: Thanks a lot.

PAUL HUTTNER: Thanks, Chris.

CHRIS FARRELL: All right, Paul Huttner is MPR's chief meteorologist.