Another long Twin Cities growing season

Could reach 184 days Friday

The last time the mercury dipped to 32 degrees at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was April 14. That morning the lingering impacts of our latest April blizzard sent temperatures to 24 degrees in the Twin Cities.

Fast forward to October. We still have not yet recorded a 32-degree or colder temperature this fall. That looks like it’s about to change. Temperatures Thursday or Friday morning should flirt with the 32-degree mark.

If it happens Friday, that makes 184 days for the 2019 growing season at MSP Airport. That’s 16 days longer than the long term average of 168 days. So it appears the 2019 growing season will run more than two weeks longer than the 30-year average.

High winds

The air is blissfully quiet Wednesday compared to Monday and Tuesday. Wind gusts reached 74 mph on the Blatnik Bridge near Duluth Monday. Today’s pressure gradient relaxes compared to these hefty gusts earlier this week.

Frigid Halloween week

The longer-range maps look scary cold next week. Highs in the 20s and 30s are likely across Minnesota.

I’ve worked my share of midnight shifts in this business in my younger days. I can relate to these midnight shift meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Omaha, Neb. Lots of time to be “creative” on the midnight shift!

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