Updraft

If skies clear enough and you’re brave enough in the cold tomorrow early starting at 5:26am look low in the southeast sky for the Space Shuttle, followed by the ISS 10 minutes later a little higher in the southern sky. Shuttle and ISS sighting for Minneapolis

From out of nowhere the National Weather Service rolled out an updated wind chill temperature (WCT) in November 2001. As Chief meteorologist for NOAA in the Twin Cities I was stunned that I was excluded from the discussion on this significant change. I believed the old index did exactly what it was designed to do,…

It seems counterintuitive, but our wind overnight actually helped keep us warmer! Wind at night mixes up the lower layers of the atmosphere, and that prevents the air near the surface from stratifying, which allows the coldest air to settle near the ground where we live. Air temperatures on windy and calm nights Standard air…

Shortly before dusk last evening I was casually patrolling the neighborhood as another nice weekend was about to come to an end. A few couples were working in tandem to mow the yard and rake the leaves. I paused to converse about the change in the weather that was set to arrive overnight. Most folks…

It’s baaaaack! The cold gales of November will roar in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest with winds gusting to over 40mph. Wind advisories are flying today for much of the state and Wisconsin. Current Minnesota winds and weather Winter Storm Warnings are up for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, as the first lake effect snow of the…

Daylight Saving Time ends this weekend as we return to Central Standard Time (CST). That means at 2 a.m. Sunday, you will stay up late so you can adjust your clocks back one hour to 1 a.m. OK, so maybe you’ll do it before you go to bed and enjoy the extra hour of sleep.…

Over the years I’ve concocted a number of alibis for inaccurate forecasts. In some instances the forecast was flat out wrong. I have also concluded part of my perceived forecast errors have come from the failure to effectively communicate. Folks are sometimes too distracted to hear the whole story. As a NOAA meteorologist for 34…

Most of us recognize November as a big transition month weatherwise, and despite a string of very mild winters, we would be wise to anticipate certain changes. Such as: -Lower freezing levels in the atmosphere that increase chances for frozen precipitation (snow), and lower the decks of clouds above us, more stratoform (layered) in nature.…

One might think this weather business is as simple as throwing a switch. After all, in many instances, the forecast challenge is whether it will be wet or dry, cloudy or sunny. Oh, if it were that easy! So we often hedge with phrases like “A 40 percent chance of precipitation” and overuse the descriptive…

Here’s some news that could critically affect the accuracy of tomorrow’s forecast. Seems the NWS is in the process of changing its radiosondes to a new manufacturer to save some money. The problem is, according to nationally recognized severe storm researcher Bob Maddox and others, the new units seem to have real data problems. They…