Fall weather on its way, just in time for the autumnal equinox

CATHY WURZER: Twin Cities temperatures have been in the 80s all week. Seems more like, what, August 18 than September 18. But there are signs of cooler air to come with the autumnal equinox approaching this Sunday. MPR chief meteorologist Paul Huttner is here to talk about all this.

Hey, before we get to the weather, I, of course, have missed everything in the sky this week.

PAUL HUTTNER: Oh, no. Not again.

CATHY WURZER: I know. OK. OK. I saw the harvest supermoon because it was so obvious getting up at 2 o'clock in the morning because there it was. But I noticed it was kind of reddish or orangey. Why was that happening?

PAUL HUTTNER: So this is the really cool part, Cathy, because it's kind of like a space movie, right? Because the sun is shining. It hits the earth, and it hits the earth's atmosphere. And it projects it onto the moon. So those reddish sunsets that we see, they were projected right onto the moon from that light that traveled through Earth's atmosphere to the moon. And that's why they call it a blood moon.

This was a pretty rare event, a kind of a celestial cinema this week, that full harvest blood eclipse supermoon. Really, really cool to see that last night. I caught part of it. I was-- of course, Tuesday night's hockey night. So I was in the middle of an ice arena. But it was cool going in and coming out.

CATHY WURZER: And I, again, missed the northern lights earlier in the week. What the heck?

PAUL HUTTNER: I did too. Little clouds rolled in here. But there were some amazing pictures from central Minnesota, northern Minnesota, vivid northern lights, a 24-hour geomagnetic storm. Lots of colors with this.

And it's interesting to note that the green and reds are when the northern lights, the energy interacts with oxygen way up in the atmosphere and blue with nitrogen. So we saw some really cool colors this week. So it's been a great week for sky-watching at night.

CATHY WURZER: I have to admit-- and this is going to come as no shock to you-- that I kind of like the weather that we've had this week. How long is it going to last?

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah. Wurzer weather, endless summer. Look, it looks like it'll last through about Friday or Saturday in terms of this unseasonable warmth we've had. September running now four degrees warmer than average in the Twin Cities and most of Minnesota.

We're 83 now. We'll be 83 again tomorrow, about 80 on Friday. But then we're going to introduce a chance of some showers and thunderstorms. And we need some rain, Cathy. Much of northern Minnesota, southern Minnesota, abnormally dry once again.

And it looks like we'll get some scattered showers and thunderstorms. There's a few now. They're mostly moderate garden-variety showers, thundershowers, Montevideo down to Marshall and Tracy, also Little Falls, Saint Cloud, a couple just west of the Twin Cities around Glencoe. So a chance today. Better chance tomorrow.

And I think that front will fire from Duluth to the Twin Cities tomorrow afternoon, right around 5, 6 o'clock. We have a slight risk for severe storms in western Minnesota today, in eastern Minnesota tomorrow. I don't think it'll be a major severe outbreak, Cathy, but we could get a couple of feisty storms, especially late tomorrow afternoon and evening as they push into western Wisconsin.

CATHY WURZER: OK. You know, Sven, our friend Sven, was talking about more rain over the weekend. Is it still on track to see a couple of inches of rain, or has that been dialed back?

PAUL HUTTNER: It might be. The models are really fighting over the timing and the coverage on this rainfall. I think the highest chance comes Sunday night into Monday. That's the time when I think we could pick up an inch or two in some spots. So we'll have to see how that works out. But yeah, we could get some much needed rainfall here. So that's certainly some good news.

CATHY WURZER: Good. Any cooler air arriving? I mean-- yes, it is arriving. How cool is it going to get?

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, next week looks normal to slightly below normal. The normal high by next Tuesday is 70 degrees in the Twin Cities. And I think we'll be in the 60s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, so a couple degrees below normal. It looks like we'll warm up again late next week, maybe 80s again. So 'tis the season, Cathy. We're starting to get these cold fronts coming through.

Another thing to watch next week, I think there's going to be a hurricane. The models are showing Gulf Coast, Florida next Wednesday, Thursday, maybe even traveling up the East Coast. So that's something we'll need to watch next week.

CATHY WURZER: And happy autumnal equinox on Sunday. I can never say that, autumnal equinox. It's hard. It's hard.

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah. Autumnal equinox. Fall equinox. 7:44 AM on Sunday morning, the sun directly over the equator, heading south in its annual trek. But the noon sun will be 45 degrees above the horizon in the Twin Cities because we're at 45 degrees north latitude. And we'll have 12 hours of daylight and darkness in those days around the equinox. And Cathy, interesting to note, the sun rises and sets directly due east and west on the equinox.

CATHY WURZER: I did not know that. OK, before you go, Climate Cast. What are you going to talk about?

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, we're going to talk to Kristoffer Tigue, with Inside Climate News, who wrote about how climate advocates are assessing the Walz-- the Governor Walz pick for vice president. They seem to be pretty enthused about what he's done in Minnesota. So we'll break that down and talk about it tomorrow on Climate Cast during All Things Considered.

CATHY WURZER: That sounds like a plan. Hope you have a good day.

PAUL HUTTNER: You too. Thanks, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: That's our chief meteorologist, Paul Huttner. You can listen to him and Tom Crann this afternoon on All Things Considered.