Midway through meteorological summer; refreshing today
Thunderstorms clipping southern Minnesota shortly after daybreak will stray into northeast Iowa this morning. Dry skies are on tap this afternoon and Tuesday.
High temperatures today are expected to be a few degrees below normal.
Entering the second half of summer, we find ourselves perhaps a tad gleeful about the lovely weather of the past weekend.
Once the big blow of thunderstorms exited the region on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday were pretty nice summer days. There was even a rather brisk breeze on Sunday for sailors to skim across the lakes.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
If we were able to burrow down on this satellite image we could observe the tens of thousands of people who were outdoors enjoying the delightful Sunday afternoon across much of Minnesota.
The thermometer at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport touched 90 degrees on Friday. Based on recorded temperatures through July 16, the Minnesota Climatology Working Group has labeled this a pretty nice summer. You can read about their "Glory Index" here.
We really can't complain about the heat as much as we like to hype the heat index!
Friday night's storms that downed some trees and produced a tornado near Watertown, Minn. There was a considerable "heads up" on thunderstorms expected to travel across central Minnesota on Friday evening.
If you Friday evening's storms caught you by surprise, you may wish to upgrade your weather app, or purchase a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather radio.
Some portions of the state could use some rain, especially in north central Minnesota. International Falls, Minn., is more than 1 inch below normal for the month of July.
Temperatures are running a couple of degrees warmer than normal for north central Minnesota, but a full 3 degrees cooler than normal in Rochester, Minn., for July.
Temperatures are expected to warm up as we move through the week and the Climate Prediction Center is betting on warmer than normal temperatures in our neck of the woods six to 10 days out!
Hope the weather favors your outdoor plans as you journey through the second half of the summer 0f 2015.