Updraft

Relaxing in the sunshine this afternoon was simply delightful. While the temperature measured in the shade was hovering around 60 degrees, my thermometer, placed in direct sunshine, soared to the middle 90s. This was a great example of the microclimate one can experience on a sun-drenched afternoon. Recorded temperatures are taken in a shaded area,…

It’s been a soggy stretch in Minnesota, but it could be worse. We’ve set a new record for August to October rainfall here in the Twin Cities, but it helped bust our drought. New Rainfall Record In Southern California it’s a firestorm. When you start to see the smoke plume on Doppler radar, you know…

It was startling to witness the rapid transformation of the mottled Minnesota landscape to a colorful montage of nature’s handiwork in a matter of days. Just when it looked as if the summer drought, followed by flooding rains, would stymie the anticipated beauty of autumn leaves, a spectacular palate of orange, red and scarlet colors…

We needed this. Minnesota gets a welcome chance to dry out this week as high pressure dominates our weather this week. Welcome sunshine will be a benefit to farmers who are trying to get into soggy fields to complete the harvest, and for those of us looking for some sun to boost spirits! So far…

In New England they call them Nor’easters. Perhaps we should call them “Superior Slammers.” That’s the term Mike Stewart from the Duluth NWS office used on Morning Edition today. They’re big, deep low pressure systems that bring high winds and rain or snow in fall and winter. The term Nor’easter is usually used for storms…

We call it cyclogenesis. It’s the term we use when low pressure forms or intensifies. We’re about to experience classic, rapid cyclogenesis in all of Minnesota over the next 48 hours, as a storm system developing near the Oklahoma panhandle winds up and moves northeast. Compare the upper right images on the two NGM computer…

When we were kids back in the day, we would get out the scissors and cut off our old jeans to make shorts in summer. That’s what the phrase “cutoffs” meant to me until my weather geekdom reached full fever in my late teens. Now “cutoffs” are a very different thing. They are slow moving,…

No, we don’t really have a monsoon climate in Minnesota. But it sure seems like it since somebody flipped the weather switch back in August. We’ve logged 17.32″ of rain at Twin Cities International airport by my count since August 1st. That’s 59% of our average annual total in just 2.5 months. We’ll be counting…

Amazing video from NASA and the Iowa mesonet cameras capturing an “Undular Bore” which is a type of gravity wave that rolled through Iowa on October 3rd. NASA scientist Tim Coleman of the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville, Alabama explains: “These waves were created by a cluster of thunderstorms approaching Des…

If you’re a weather fan and live in Norwood Young America or Weyerhauser, Wisconsin the NWS wants you! Here’s a link to information on the NWS Cooperative Observer Program. NWS Cooperative Observer Program Happy weather watching! PH