Snow, icebergs, deluge: 5 weirdest days this spring

There’s nothing quite like spring in Minnesota when the elements conspire to ruin your outdoor parties, delay your home projects, kill your baseball and, occasionally, try to kill you.

As we await the latest round of severe weather , here’s a loving look at this spring’s five weirdest weather phenomena, via Updraft.

1.) June icebergs still roaming Lake Superior. Nothing says spring like icebergs. The last remnants of the coldest winter in 35 years are still afloat on Lake Superior on June 10. Check out this June iceberg captured recently near Madeline Island  by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

2.) Tornado sirens and snow? Winter storm warnings are flying on April 24 in northeast Minnesota on statewide tornado drill day. Ice out is declared on Lake Minnetonka and to celebrate the weather gods greet us with soaking weekend rains in the Twin Cities.

3.) Life in the vortex. Waves of persistent rain  – a hydro vortex --  batter Minnesota in late April, helping make it one of the wettest Aprils on record.

The hydro vortex, by the way, is not to be confused with the polar vortex, which kept us in a deep freeze most of the winter and early spring and led to T.C. Bear shoveling snow at Target Field in mid-April.

4.) Weird icy temperature shock. As if late spring icebergs weren't odd enough, we get a Memorial Day weekend on the North Shore with icebergs, 85 degree weather and then a wind shift that dropped the temperature 25 to 30 degrees in just minutes.

https://twitter.com/JPRennquist/status/471052770980925440/

5.) Riding the gravity wave. A relatively rare and unpredictable weather phenomenon called gravity waves may have been the culprit for the severe weekend storms that pounded the Twin Cities over the June 14-15 weekend.

It came complete with “undular bores” that focused the sustained severe wind gusts. Perfect!

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