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We are drying off Wednesday after a lot of rain across Minnesota. Severe weather hit southern portions of the state and National Weather Service teams will be surveying damage from a possible tornado in Winona County.
MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joined MPR News guest Host Nina Moini after a busy night to recap the severe weather and look at the forecast ahead.
Read the Updraft Blog for the latest forecast.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
NINA: Well, we are drying off today after a lot of rain across Minnesota. Severe weather hit southern portions of the state, making it a busy night. For NPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner, but he is with us this afternoon. Thanks for being here, Paul.
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey. Good to be here, Nina. Nice to see a little bit of sunshine today.
NINA: Yeah, it really is. And there was a nice breeze, too. Let's recap last night's severe weather. Boy, it was loud. Any tornadoes, any damage?
PAUL HUTTNER: There was. This was a major severe weather outbreak. Minnesota was on the northern end of this. But Nina, I'm looking at the storm report map, and NOAA color-codes these red for tornado, green for hail, blue for wind. And there is a technicolor swath of these dots from Nebraska covering all of Iowa, Southeast Minnesota, mainly south of the Twin Cities into Wisconsin.
This system produced 21 tornadoes. 18 of those were in Iowa, three were in Minnesota. We had a tornado near Hall Lake, near Fairmont in Martin County. We also confirmed the Weather Service from La Crosse confirms an EF-1 tornado confirmed in Winona County. This thing was on the ground for 18 miles last night, Nina. The path width was 50 yards.
It had 105 mile an hour winds. It touched down near Saint Charles, went through Rolling Stone or near it, and then crossed the Mississippi River into Wisconsin. There was also a tornado near Hayfield, Minnesota on Monday evening. So wind gusts Southeast Minnesota, Harmony 72 miles an hour, Taopi 64, Stewartville 63, Rochester around 60. There was some scattered tree damage in Southeast Minnesota, but we got lucky.
And Nina, those rotations in the clouds where we had tornado warnings just south of the Twin Cities. None of those touched down, thankfully. And I was watching those rotations on Doppler as they moved up toward the Twin Cities, Eastern Twin Cities into Western Wisconsin. We got really, really lucky last night we didn't have a tornado here.
NINA: Yeah. And you mentioned Taopi that had been hit in recent years. And some of these communities are still recovering from past events. So I think we did get lucky there. How about rain? Do we have any flooding reports from the storm?
PAUL HUTTNER: Well, we do. The Minnesota river is back into flood warning now at Montevideo. We had a widespread swath of 2 to 4 inches of rain, including parts of the Twin Cities. New Brighton got 3.4 inches of rain. Farmington got four inches of rain just south of the Twin Cities. Northfield, 3.8. Golden Valley. Western Metro 3.27. Apple Valley had a little over 3 inches. I saw Princeton had 2.8, Benson 2.7, Mahtomedi at 2.6, Minneapolis airport 3.22, Saint Paul 2.6. So these widespread areas of 2 to about 4 inches of rain. Rivers and creeks and ponds are brimful around the area, Nina.
NINA: And we know we have a Memorial Day weekend coming up, a three-day weekend for a lot of people. What are you tracking for the forecast?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's pretty good overall with a couple of chances of rain. We've got some showers in Northern Minnesota today. Grand rapids, Iron Range up to International Falls up at the border, 50s up North. We'll hit about 70in the Twin Cities today. Just a slight chance of a pop up shower or thunder shower. Tomorrow looks nice, mostly sunny.
80 in the Twin Cities, 70s and 60s North. And then Thursday night and especially Friday, more rain, scattered showers, thunderstorms. Doesn't look severe at this point. 70 for the high in the Twin Cities, lots of 60s in Northern Minnesota. And then Saturday, Sunday, memorial day, partly cloudy, mostly sunny Saturday. 60s North, around 70 in the Twin Cities.
Sunday, partly cloudy, 71 here. Again, mostly 60s North this weekend. And then that next chance of rain Sunday night into Monday, a chance of a few scattered showers and thunderstorms. So Memorial Day climatologically, Nina, is our wettest of the big three summer holidays. So if we can get two days without rain, that's a pretty good thing.
NINA: Yeah, I was going to say, you never know what you're going to get on Memorial Day weekend, but it sounds like a mixture coming up.
PAUL HUTTNER: Indeed.
NINA: And I understand we're in the brightest months of the year, which is really nice. How much daylight are we getting now as we're sort of heading toward the end of spring?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, and I love this time of year, the long evenings, those late sunsets, and the twilight. Now through early August, brightest time of the year, we've got 15 hours and seven minutes of daylight today. And we keep 15 hours or more right into the first part of August. We peak at the summer solstice, June 20th, 9:51 PM. I've got it marked on my calendar.
NINA: Wow.
PAUL HUTTNER: 15 hours, 36 minutes of daylight, Nina. That's pretty incredible, those long evenings and early sunrises in Minnesota.
NINA: And I know, you mentioned all the rain that we've gotten. I mean, how are we doing drought-wise? How did that impact things?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, the only drought area now, and we'll get this update tomorrow in Minnesota, is really still Northwest, North Central Minnesota. It's only about 10% of the state. They got a lot of rain in Southeast Minnesota. There was a little sliver of drought down there. I'm pretty sure that's gone now. But we are also seeing a lot of, like I said, high water and soil moisture too. A lot of the soil moisture is adequate for farmers, but some of its surplus. I think it was about 17% to 20% here in the last week.
NINA: Yeah, I know that was a big concern over the mild sort of winter that we had. So that's a good update. How about Climate Cast? What do you have on tap for us this week?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, so the Minnesota legislature, as we know, just wrapped up kind of a chaotic session, but they did some work on climate bills. And we're going to talk to Walker Ornstein from The Star Tribune, who worked the session about just what got done on climate in Minnesota this year. That's Climate Cast tomorrow during All Things Considered, Nina.
NINA: All right. That's MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner. Thank you so much for being with us, Paul.
PAUL HUTTNER: My pleasure. Have a great rest of the show.
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey. Good to be here, Nina. Nice to see a little bit of sunshine today.
NINA: Yeah, it really is. And there was a nice breeze, too. Let's recap last night's severe weather. Boy, it was loud. Any tornadoes, any damage?
PAUL HUTTNER: There was. This was a major severe weather outbreak. Minnesota was on the northern end of this. But Nina, I'm looking at the storm report map, and NOAA color-codes these red for tornado, green for hail, blue for wind. And there is a technicolor swath of these dots from Nebraska covering all of Iowa, Southeast Minnesota, mainly south of the Twin Cities into Wisconsin.
This system produced 21 tornadoes. 18 of those were in Iowa, three were in Minnesota. We had a tornado near Hall Lake, near Fairmont in Martin County. We also confirmed the Weather Service from La Crosse confirms an EF-1 tornado confirmed in Winona County. This thing was on the ground for 18 miles last night, Nina. The path width was 50 yards.
It had 105 mile an hour winds. It touched down near Saint Charles, went through Rolling Stone or near it, and then crossed the Mississippi River into Wisconsin. There was also a tornado near Hayfield, Minnesota on Monday evening. So wind gusts Southeast Minnesota, Harmony 72 miles an hour, Taopi 64, Stewartville 63, Rochester around 60. There was some scattered tree damage in Southeast Minnesota, but we got lucky.
And Nina, those rotations in the clouds where we had tornado warnings just south of the Twin Cities. None of those touched down, thankfully. And I was watching those rotations on Doppler as they moved up toward the Twin Cities, Eastern Twin Cities into Western Wisconsin. We got really, really lucky last night we didn't have a tornado here.
NINA: Yeah. And you mentioned Taopi that had been hit in recent years. And some of these communities are still recovering from past events. So I think we did get lucky there. How about rain? Do we have any flooding reports from the storm?
PAUL HUTTNER: Well, we do. The Minnesota river is back into flood warning now at Montevideo. We had a widespread swath of 2 to 4 inches of rain, including parts of the Twin Cities. New Brighton got 3.4 inches of rain. Farmington got four inches of rain just south of the Twin Cities. Northfield, 3.8. Golden Valley. Western Metro 3.27. Apple Valley had a little over 3 inches. I saw Princeton had 2.8, Benson 2.7, Mahtomedi at 2.6, Minneapolis airport 3.22, Saint Paul 2.6. So these widespread areas of 2 to about 4 inches of rain. Rivers and creeks and ponds are brimful around the area, Nina.
NINA: And we know we have a Memorial Day weekend coming up, a three-day weekend for a lot of people. What are you tracking for the forecast?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's pretty good overall with a couple of chances of rain. We've got some showers in Northern Minnesota today. Grand rapids, Iron Range up to International Falls up at the border, 50s up North. We'll hit about 70in the Twin Cities today. Just a slight chance of a pop up shower or thunder shower. Tomorrow looks nice, mostly sunny.
80 in the Twin Cities, 70s and 60s North. And then Thursday night and especially Friday, more rain, scattered showers, thunderstorms. Doesn't look severe at this point. 70 for the high in the Twin Cities, lots of 60s in Northern Minnesota. And then Saturday, Sunday, memorial day, partly cloudy, mostly sunny Saturday. 60s North, around 70 in the Twin Cities.
Sunday, partly cloudy, 71 here. Again, mostly 60s North this weekend. And then that next chance of rain Sunday night into Monday, a chance of a few scattered showers and thunderstorms. So Memorial Day climatologically, Nina, is our wettest of the big three summer holidays. So if we can get two days without rain, that's a pretty good thing.
NINA: Yeah, I was going to say, you never know what you're going to get on Memorial Day weekend, but it sounds like a mixture coming up.
PAUL HUTTNER: Indeed.
NINA: And I understand we're in the brightest months of the year, which is really nice. How much daylight are we getting now as we're sort of heading toward the end of spring?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, and I love this time of year, the long evenings, those late sunsets, and the twilight. Now through early August, brightest time of the year, we've got 15 hours and seven minutes of daylight today. And we keep 15 hours or more right into the first part of August. We peak at the summer solstice, June 20th, 9:51 PM. I've got it marked on my calendar.
NINA: Wow.
PAUL HUTTNER: 15 hours, 36 minutes of daylight, Nina. That's pretty incredible, those long evenings and early sunrises in Minnesota.
NINA: And I know, you mentioned all the rain that we've gotten. I mean, how are we doing drought-wise? How did that impact things?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, the only drought area now, and we'll get this update tomorrow in Minnesota, is really still Northwest, North Central Minnesota. It's only about 10% of the state. They got a lot of rain in Southeast Minnesota. There was a little sliver of drought down there. I'm pretty sure that's gone now. But we are also seeing a lot of, like I said, high water and soil moisture too. A lot of the soil moisture is adequate for farmers, but some of its surplus. I think it was about 17% to 20% here in the last week.
NINA: Yeah, I know that was a big concern over the mild sort of winter that we had. So that's a good update. How about Climate Cast? What do you have on tap for us this week?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, so the Minnesota legislature, as we know, just wrapped up kind of a chaotic session, but they did some work on climate bills. And we're going to talk to Walker Ornstein from The Star Tribune, who worked the session about just what got done on climate in Minnesota this year. That's Climate Cast tomorrow during All Things Considered, Nina.
NINA: All right. That's MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner. Thank you so much for being with us, Paul.
PAUL HUTTNER: My pleasure. Have a great rest of the show.
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