'Best weather in a year' in the forecast
A white-tinted sky above the Weather Lab Tuesday.
Paul Huttner/MPR News
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The Twin Cities missed out on the severe weather that came through the state earlier this week. But the weather ahead has the potential for rain and temperatures in the 80s. MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joins MPR News host Nina Moini with the forecast.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
NINA MOINI: Well, we know by now the Twin Cities metro missed out on the severe weather earlier this week, but we have potential for rain ahead and even temperatures in the 80s up ahead. So joining me now with the latest forecast is MPR News chief meteorologist, Paul Huttner. Thanks for being here Paul.
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, my pleasure, Nina, on this wonderful, beautiful spring day. I always think that spring is the promise that summer keeps in Minnesota. And today is that kind of day where you think things are just going to get better. And they are on the weather maps.
NINA MOINI: That was beautiful. Thank you for that.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it only took me about two years to come up with that.
NINA MOINI: Well, I was nervous, I got to say, earlier this week. But the Twin Cities did get lucky. But other areas-- there were some tornadoes that even touched down, right?
PAUL HUTTNER: There were. In fact, the National Weather Service has it up to six tornadoes in our region. So there were two in Minnesota, one in Nobles County in Southern Minnesota, one 6 miles west of Kenyon in Rice County. That's south of the Twin Cities. That tornado, Nina, picked up some debris from a barn and farm area and dropped it a mile away. So it was a pretty potent little tornado.
And then six just east of the Twin Cities-- now, this is interesting because those storms formed right on the eastern edge of the Twin Cities and then produced tornadoes south of Eau Claire-- four tornadoes there, EF0 to EF1. They did some damage too. Nina, we got lucky because we needed about an hour more of sunshine before those storms hit. We got a little bit of sun, and that destabilized the atmosphere. But if we had had another hour, I think we would have been dealing with a different situation in the Twin Cities.
And I was watching those storms Monday, and they were rotating. But they just didn't have enough oomph, thankfully, to drop a bunch of tornadoes. So yeah, we got pretty lucky Monday.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, I heard the analogy of-- it was like the sea parted around the Twin Cities I kept reading.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yes, the Red Sea.
NINA MOINI: And so did we have our last frost this morning? Or what am I seeing here about our last frost?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it was 39 at the airport. The downtowns didn't get a frost this morning. But a lot of the suburbs and much of Southern Minnesota, Central Minnesota did see frost. And the reason I brought that up is because it looks like this could be the last one-- maybe of the season-- in Southern Minnesota. Looking at the maps for the next 10 days or so, the lowest temperature I'm seeing in the Twin Cities is 41 degrees. So it's likely that we've seen our last freeze here in the Twin Cities.
Now, the average date of that is May 10 at the airport. So we'd be a little bit early on that. And frost is still likely in much of Central and Northern Minnesota. You know that if you live up north. In fact, they can get frost into June up in Northeast Minnesota. But I think might be safe to put those petunias in in the Twin Cities-- from the looks of the maps here-- the next one to two weeks.
NINA MOINI: That's great. And I know, in recent weekends, I've always felt like the rain was waiting for the weekend to come-- not every weekend, but it's been a little pattern. What are you forecasting through this weekend?
PAUL HUTTNER: I got to say, the maps look great. This could be the best weather we've had in about a year in the Twin Cities-- in all of Minnesota, really. We're 64 now. We're headed for 68 today, quite a bit of sunshine out there. Tomorrow, a little chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms-- no big deal. The high is 64, and then Friday, partly cloudy and 60. Saturday, some sunshine mixed in and 70. And Sunday, Nina, I think we'll hit 78 in the Twin Cities.
There will be 80s in Western Minnesota. It looks like that'll last into Monday. So we've got a really great stretch of weather coming up here over the next week or two.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. And what are you seeing? Are you able to look further out to see if it might be a warmer or colder type of spring and summer?
PAUL HUTTNER: You know, this has been a really interesting spring because it's kind of been a rare real spring in Minnesota, where temperatures have increased gradually, right? We didn't go from snow to 80 degrees in a week, like we have done in the past in April. And so this has been a good spring. And it looks like we're finally ramping up into more 70s, like a string of 70s next week, maybe some more 80s, just a gradual warm-up.
So this could get really nice here the next week or two. The NOAA forecasts are forecasting a higher chance of above normal temperatures here over the next couple of weeks.
NINA MOINI: All right. That's great to know. And I want to make sure we talk to you about what's on Climate Cast this week.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, there's a boom of these AI data centers around the country. And some of them are coming to Minnesota. And they're interesting because they use a lot of water to cool them and quite a bit of power. So it's interesting to see what those effects are on our water resources and climate. And we'll talk about that tomorrow on Climate Cast on All Things Considered.
NINA MOINI: All right. Thanks so much, Paul.
PAUL HUTTNER: My pleasure. Thanks, Nina.
NINA MOINI: That's MPR News chief meteorologist, Paul Huttner.
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, my pleasure, Nina, on this wonderful, beautiful spring day. I always think that spring is the promise that summer keeps in Minnesota. And today is that kind of day where you think things are just going to get better. And they are on the weather maps.
NINA MOINI: That was beautiful. Thank you for that.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it only took me about two years to come up with that.
NINA MOINI: Well, I was nervous, I got to say, earlier this week. But the Twin Cities did get lucky. But other areas-- there were some tornadoes that even touched down, right?
PAUL HUTTNER: There were. In fact, the National Weather Service has it up to six tornadoes in our region. So there were two in Minnesota, one in Nobles County in Southern Minnesota, one 6 miles west of Kenyon in Rice County. That's south of the Twin Cities. That tornado, Nina, picked up some debris from a barn and farm area and dropped it a mile away. So it was a pretty potent little tornado.
And then six just east of the Twin Cities-- now, this is interesting because those storms formed right on the eastern edge of the Twin Cities and then produced tornadoes south of Eau Claire-- four tornadoes there, EF0 to EF1. They did some damage too. Nina, we got lucky because we needed about an hour more of sunshine before those storms hit. We got a little bit of sun, and that destabilized the atmosphere. But if we had had another hour, I think we would have been dealing with a different situation in the Twin Cities.
And I was watching those storms Monday, and they were rotating. But they just didn't have enough oomph, thankfully, to drop a bunch of tornadoes. So yeah, we got pretty lucky Monday.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, I heard the analogy of-- it was like the sea parted around the Twin Cities I kept reading.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yes, the Red Sea.
NINA MOINI: And so did we have our last frost this morning? Or what am I seeing here about our last frost?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it was 39 at the airport. The downtowns didn't get a frost this morning. But a lot of the suburbs and much of Southern Minnesota, Central Minnesota did see frost. And the reason I brought that up is because it looks like this could be the last one-- maybe of the season-- in Southern Minnesota. Looking at the maps for the next 10 days or so, the lowest temperature I'm seeing in the Twin Cities is 41 degrees. So it's likely that we've seen our last freeze here in the Twin Cities.
Now, the average date of that is May 10 at the airport. So we'd be a little bit early on that. And frost is still likely in much of Central and Northern Minnesota. You know that if you live up north. In fact, they can get frost into June up in Northeast Minnesota. But I think might be safe to put those petunias in in the Twin Cities-- from the looks of the maps here-- the next one to two weeks.
NINA MOINI: That's great. And I know, in recent weekends, I've always felt like the rain was waiting for the weekend to come-- not every weekend, but it's been a little pattern. What are you forecasting through this weekend?
PAUL HUTTNER: I got to say, the maps look great. This could be the best weather we've had in about a year in the Twin Cities-- in all of Minnesota, really. We're 64 now. We're headed for 68 today, quite a bit of sunshine out there. Tomorrow, a little chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms-- no big deal. The high is 64, and then Friday, partly cloudy and 60. Saturday, some sunshine mixed in and 70. And Sunday, Nina, I think we'll hit 78 in the Twin Cities.
There will be 80s in Western Minnesota. It looks like that'll last into Monday. So we've got a really great stretch of weather coming up here over the next week or two.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. And what are you seeing? Are you able to look further out to see if it might be a warmer or colder type of spring and summer?
PAUL HUTTNER: You know, this has been a really interesting spring because it's kind of been a rare real spring in Minnesota, where temperatures have increased gradually, right? We didn't go from snow to 80 degrees in a week, like we have done in the past in April. And so this has been a good spring. And it looks like we're finally ramping up into more 70s, like a string of 70s next week, maybe some more 80s, just a gradual warm-up.
So this could get really nice here the next week or two. The NOAA forecasts are forecasting a higher chance of above normal temperatures here over the next couple of weeks.
NINA MOINI: All right. That's great to know. And I want to make sure we talk to you about what's on Climate Cast this week.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, there's a boom of these AI data centers around the country. And some of them are coming to Minnesota. And they're interesting because they use a lot of water to cool them and quite a bit of power. So it's interesting to see what those effects are on our water resources and climate. And we'll talk about that tomorrow on Climate Cast on All Things Considered.
NINA MOINI: All right. Thanks so much, Paul.
PAUL HUTTNER: My pleasure. Thanks, Nina.
NINA MOINI: That's MPR News chief meteorologist, Paul Huttner.
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