Huttner: Comfortable temperatures should last through weekend

CATHY WURZER: Well, this week has been a respite from the intense heat of the past few weeks. It's felt really beautiful, and there's even been a little rain, which is a very good thing. But let's find out if it's enough to bring us out of these drought conditions, especially in Central Minnesota, including the Twin Cities. Here with the answers is MPR's Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner. Hey, Paul.

PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, Cathy. Great to talk with you.

CATHY WURZER: Likewise, it's a beautiful day out there.

PAUL HUTTNER: Oh, yes, lovely.

CATHY WURZER: I'm wondering about the rainfall. I saw the storms pop up last night. It looked like there were some areas that got some pretty decent rain.

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, and I would call this the proverbial million dollar rain, because this fell just in the sweet spot of really one of the driest areas in Minnesota. You take from the Twin Cities back west along Highway 212 and then Northwest along I-94, that kind of pie slice of Central Minnesota, one of the driest areas. And we got some great rainfall totals, those slow moving thunderstorms, garden variety storms.

Annandale had 2.2 inches, Long Prairie 2.1, Bird Island West of the Twin Cities 2 inches, Glencoe about 1.7, Cold Spring an inch and a half, Hutchinson close to that 1.4, Carver Southwest of the Twin Cities 1.3. As you know, as anybody knows, who's driven through that part of Minnesota, that is corn and soybean country. And I know some farmers in Olivia who have been right on the edge of very dry and they got a good soaking last night. Many of these places did.

So that was a very timely rain, very much needed and comes in a backdrop of Minnesota where we've had spotty rainfall coverage this summer. I mean, the heaviest areas have been in Southeast Minnesota. They had 4 to 10 inches basically, from Rochester South East over the last 30 days or so. Most of Southern Minnesota, that I-90 corridor doing pretty well OK, 2 to 4 inches in the last month, basically, South of Mankato.

And Northern Minnesota's been doing pretty well also, but it's that Central Minnesota area that got the rain last night that really needed it. And Cathy, Twin Cities, this was the fourth driest June and July period on record. So we're in drought here. We've got severe drought again cropping up from last week's drought report, Twin Cities, Southern Twin Cities, Southwest on the Minnesota River Valley and a little moderate drought South and West of that.

But here's the interesting part. We had that wet spring, so the soils were pretty recharged. The crops are doing OK in most areas. 63% of the corn crop in Minnesota is either good or excellent. 53% is good. 10% is excellent, about the same with soybeans 62%. So crops are hanging in there. There are pockets of dryness where folks really need some rain in their fields. But overall, we're doing OK on crops this summer.

CATHY WURZER: That's great news. I'm, kind of, wondering, though, about the forecast for the weekend into next week that shows hot, humid weather.

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it looks great into the weekend, as you point out. It is a bluebird day out there, lots of sunshine. Today we're 80 with a dew point of 54 in the Twin Cities. It is comfortable. And tomorrow will be about 76 so almost a whiff of September tomorrow with low dew points again, sunshine Friday, 79.

The weekend warms up, a little more wurzer weather-ish on the weekend, sunny, breezy warmer. 87 Saturday, maybe 88, 89 on Sunday for the Twin Cities with a little more humidity and a chance of thunderstorm Sunday afternoon. It's next week when it looks like that heat dome to the South may nudge back up here again, forecast models saying yeah, maybe around 90 Monday, Tuesday. But then European and American models saying, well into the 90s about next Wednesday and Thursday. Euro's cranking out 98, 99 for the Twin Cities. We'll see that could be overdone and some models saying we could get 100 again in Southwest Minnesota next week. So we'll have to keep an eye on that.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, gosh, OK. See, before you go, I was so happy that you went to our friend Don Shelby's house, former WCCO TV news anchor Don Shelby, who's now retired. And I think he did such a beautiful job with his house because it is just so energy efficient and you toured that.

PAUL HUTTNER: I did. And he really put a lot of thought into this, Cathy. As you know, he's a big climate advocate and, kind of, put his money where his mouth is in this house. He built it as close to net zero carbon as he could. He put in a geothermal system with wells that go down 80 feet, a solar system that has paid for itself over these years, the geothermal as well and used every board from the old house that was on the property in his new house.

So I went out and interviewed him for Climate Cast, and we had a really nice piece on there. If you go to MPR News Climate Cast, you'll find that piece from last week. Interesting thing, he's got a statue in his front yard called an Inukshuk. I hope I pronounced that right. It's an Inupiat statue that they put for direction finding in the Arctic because they're so affected by climate change as well.

And Don has that statue in his front yard basically to say he understands that the Inupiat are so affected by climate change, and that's the reason he built his house the way he did, so kind of an interesting piece. It was a pleasure to talk to Don as always.

CATHY WURZER: And how is he doing?

PAUL HUTTNER: He's doing great. You may know we've played music for the last 30 years or so and we're back doing the blues band thing. So Don is singing well.

CATHY WURZER: Good. I'm glad to hear that. And, of course, people can still hear that Climate Cast by going to mprnews.org. Click on Climate Cast, right?

PAUL HUTTNER: Yes, absolutely.

CATHY WURZER: Excellent. OK, well here again this afternoon with our friend Tom.

PAUL HUTTNER: Thanks. Thanks, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: See you later. That's our MPR News Chief Meteorologist, Paul Huttner. And yeah, you can hear him later this afternoon with Tom Crann on All Things Considered.