‘Spring is often one step forward, two steps back,’ says chief meteorologist
Forecast highs on Thursday.
National Weather Service
We’re looking forward to warmer temperatures and sun across the state — it’s feeling downright spring-like!
MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer for a look at the week ahead.
We checked in on the moisture and soil conditions for spring planting season, and Huttner filled us in on Thursday’s tornado drill. Plus, a new study shows how much the X social media platform impacts climate change denial.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: We're going to talk about the weather right now. Much warmer temperatures today, and some sunshine. It feels, well, downright springy out there, which is great. MPR Our chief meteorologist Paul Huttner is here to give us a look at the week ahead. How's it going for you?
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, good. Happy spring to you. Taste of May out there today, kind of a robin's egg blue sky. It's beautiful.
CATHY WURZER: I know. I love that. This is what we live for here during the winter months. So happy severe weather awareness week to you. I say that because it's a good thing to just be thinking about the potential incoming severe weather somewhere along the line here in the next few weeks.
PAUL HUTTNER: Indeed, tis the season. Severe weather awareness week for Minnesota and Wisconsin this week. Cathy, I always say this, it's just good to have a plan. And the biggest thing I stress, the biggest severe weather threat in Minnesota is severe thunderstorms. Tornadoes get a lot of the headlines. But severe thunderstorms cover far more area with damaging winds, with hail versus tornadoes.
Tornadoes are devastating, of course. But they're just a lot smaller. I think back to last August, we had that severe hail storm. In about 30 minutes, we did $1 billion worth of damage in and around the Twin Cities, Central Minnesota. That was one of the $28 billion weather disasters last year in the United States.
So the tornado drill this Thursday, 1:45 and 6:45 PM, the sirens will sound. Have a plan. Have multiple ways to get weather information, obviously, the phone, a weather radio. And we, of course, step up the coverage here on MPR News with extra severe weather coverage when severe weather hits.
CATHY WURZER: By the way, can I ask you, on a personal level, I know you have a weather alert radio, probably, right?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah. What's your second way of getting alerts?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, the phone has great lately, because it will kick in with those alerts. It is rare, Cathy, that I'm not sitting here at this computer when there's severe weather going on. So I'm watching severe weather chats behind the scenes from the Weather Service. You know, obviously, I'm watching the warnings pop up as they happen.
CATHY WURZER: Just curious as to what a professional does. So, OK, we have the tornado drill tomorrow. So we'll keep track of that. I believe it's at, what, 1 o'clock?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, 1:45 and 6:45 PM is when the sirens will sound. And interesting to note, we remind people, those sirens are generated by your local County or your local city emergency services. They're not all triggered by the same impact most of them are tornado warnings. Some of them will sound for winds expected over 70 or 80 miles an hour. And there is no all clear. So just a couple of interesting siren points, as they're designed as an outdoor warning system.
CATHY WURZER: That is true. Let's talk about this warm weekend. There's going to be a lot springing up, a lot of buds popping and that kind of thing because of this warm weekend.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, those tulips that came up a couple of weeks ago are finally going to get a chance to bloom, it looks like. Spring is often two steps forward one step back. So today, a couple steps forward. It's beautiful out there. I think we'll hit 70 in the Twin Cities. That's 60s and most of Northern Minnesota.
Tomorrow, a little speed bump, a blustery speed bump-- windy, 58, maybe a couple of showers. And then, Friday, mostly sunny, 61, a pretty nice day, a little bit of a breeze. Saturday and Sunday, though, mid-70s for the Twin Cities. I think we could hit 80 in pipestone and Laverne, Redwood Falls on Saturday afternoon. We're back into the low 70s on Monday before a pretty good chance of some more rain.
CATHY WURZER: OK, which I'm sure that farmers are excited about, but it could also maybe slow them down, perhaps, when it comes to spring planting?
PAUL HUTTNER: It might. We're getting these dry days in between, which is good, Cathy. But the profile of moisture over the last month has been pretty remarkable. We've had 2 to 5 inches of moisture basically south and east of a line from Ely to Brainerd to Redwood Falls, so most of Minnesota, really, most of our most productive farmland. And that's going to put that soil moisture in pretty good shape.
We may get some of the models saying another inch to two inches of rain by about next Tuesday. So if we can get enough of these dry days, these sunny days with a bit of a breeze in between, we could be in pretty good shape for planting season here for most of Minnesota.
CATHY WURZER: Great, Say, before you go, Climate Cast, what's on the program?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, climate denialism, there's still about 10% of Americans who deny climate change, even though the solid majority, 58%, are either alarmed or concerned, Cathy. That's from the Yale and George Mason climate opinion maps, the six Americas of Climate Change. And we're going to talk about what's feeding that.
It turns out, Twitter, as you might be not surprised-- or X as they call it these days-- is a big source of climate denialism. So we'll talk to an expert who did a study on that tomorrow on All Things Considered.
CATHY WURZER: That sounds good. Thank you.
PAUL HUTTNER: Thank you, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: You can listen to All Things Considered and Paul Huttner with Tom Cran every day, 3:00 until 6:00, right here on MPR News.
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, good. Happy spring to you. Taste of May out there today, kind of a robin's egg blue sky. It's beautiful.
CATHY WURZER: I know. I love that. This is what we live for here during the winter months. So happy severe weather awareness week to you. I say that because it's a good thing to just be thinking about the potential incoming severe weather somewhere along the line here in the next few weeks.
PAUL HUTTNER: Indeed, tis the season. Severe weather awareness week for Minnesota and Wisconsin this week. Cathy, I always say this, it's just good to have a plan. And the biggest thing I stress, the biggest severe weather threat in Minnesota is severe thunderstorms. Tornadoes get a lot of the headlines. But severe thunderstorms cover far more area with damaging winds, with hail versus tornadoes.
Tornadoes are devastating, of course. But they're just a lot smaller. I think back to last August, we had that severe hail storm. In about 30 minutes, we did $1 billion worth of damage in and around the Twin Cities, Central Minnesota. That was one of the $28 billion weather disasters last year in the United States.
So the tornado drill this Thursday, 1:45 and 6:45 PM, the sirens will sound. Have a plan. Have multiple ways to get weather information, obviously, the phone, a weather radio. And we, of course, step up the coverage here on MPR News with extra severe weather coverage when severe weather hits.
CATHY WURZER: By the way, can I ask you, on a personal level, I know you have a weather alert radio, probably, right?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah. What's your second way of getting alerts?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, the phone has great lately, because it will kick in with those alerts. It is rare, Cathy, that I'm not sitting here at this computer when there's severe weather going on. So I'm watching severe weather chats behind the scenes from the Weather Service. You know, obviously, I'm watching the warnings pop up as they happen.
CATHY WURZER: Just curious as to what a professional does. So, OK, we have the tornado drill tomorrow. So we'll keep track of that. I believe it's at, what, 1 o'clock?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, 1:45 and 6:45 PM is when the sirens will sound. And interesting to note, we remind people, those sirens are generated by your local County or your local city emergency services. They're not all triggered by the same impact most of them are tornado warnings. Some of them will sound for winds expected over 70 or 80 miles an hour. And there is no all clear. So just a couple of interesting siren points, as they're designed as an outdoor warning system.
CATHY WURZER: That is true. Let's talk about this warm weekend. There's going to be a lot springing up, a lot of buds popping and that kind of thing because of this warm weekend.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, those tulips that came up a couple of weeks ago are finally going to get a chance to bloom, it looks like. Spring is often two steps forward one step back. So today, a couple steps forward. It's beautiful out there. I think we'll hit 70 in the Twin Cities. That's 60s and most of Northern Minnesota.
Tomorrow, a little speed bump, a blustery speed bump-- windy, 58, maybe a couple of showers. And then, Friday, mostly sunny, 61, a pretty nice day, a little bit of a breeze. Saturday and Sunday, though, mid-70s for the Twin Cities. I think we could hit 80 in pipestone and Laverne, Redwood Falls on Saturday afternoon. We're back into the low 70s on Monday before a pretty good chance of some more rain.
CATHY WURZER: OK, which I'm sure that farmers are excited about, but it could also maybe slow them down, perhaps, when it comes to spring planting?
PAUL HUTTNER: It might. We're getting these dry days in between, which is good, Cathy. But the profile of moisture over the last month has been pretty remarkable. We've had 2 to 5 inches of moisture basically south and east of a line from Ely to Brainerd to Redwood Falls, so most of Minnesota, really, most of our most productive farmland. And that's going to put that soil moisture in pretty good shape.
We may get some of the models saying another inch to two inches of rain by about next Tuesday. So if we can get enough of these dry days, these sunny days with a bit of a breeze in between, we could be in pretty good shape for planting season here for most of Minnesota.
CATHY WURZER: Great, Say, before you go, Climate Cast, what's on the program?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, climate denialism, there's still about 10% of Americans who deny climate change, even though the solid majority, 58%, are either alarmed or concerned, Cathy. That's from the Yale and George Mason climate opinion maps, the six Americas of Climate Change. And we're going to talk about what's feeding that.
It turns out, Twitter, as you might be not surprised-- or X as they call it these days-- is a big source of climate denialism. So we'll talk to an expert who did a study on that tomorrow on All Things Considered.
CATHY WURZER: That sounds good. Thank you.
PAUL HUTTNER: Thank you, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: You can listen to All Things Considered and Paul Huttner with Tom Cran every day, 3:00 until 6:00, right here on MPR News.
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