Oxburst-free skies ahead
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Weather legends are made in Minnesota.
The Armistice Day blizzard. The gales of November Edmund Fitzgerald storm. The Halloween Mega-Storm.
Brainerd's Babe the Blue Ox blowdown? A perfect Fargo meets A Prairie Home Companion mashup. The Cohen brothers couldn't have written it any better.
The storm that downed Babe of Brainerd raced across northern and central Minnesota overnight. How much wind does it take to topple a 3-ton blue ox? Brainerd International Airport recorded an ox-sized wind gust to 78 mph at 3:22 am this morning.
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3 WNW Woodrow [Crow Wing Co, MN] ASOS reports TSTM WND GST of M78 MPH at 3:22 AM CDT -- AT BRAINERD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.
Local storm reports (LSR's) pour into NWS offices during severe weather events. In 30 years of covering severe weather, I've never seen an LSR quite like this one that came into the Duluth NWS office today. I edited the report for brevity in this twitter post.
With the help of a forklift Babe was back up on his feet soon after the storms passed.
The National Weather Service may need to add to the graphic language recently adopted in storm warnings.
This storm contains flying debris. Windshield shattering hail. Risk of being gored by wind-driven blue ox?
Stormy metro AM rush
Storms blew through the Twin Cities during AM rush hour with high winds and heavy downpours this morning.
Musical manhole covers and all.
Dry-front Friday
A significant and welcome cool front cuts through the Upper Midwest scouring out this week's tropical air mass. Corn sweat-fueled dew points near 80 degrees pooled across Iowa Thursday. A remarkably drier air mass with dew points in the 50s means half as much moisture in the air over Minnesota this weekend. Desert-dry air pools over the northern Rockies where wildfires are flaring. I've plotted dew point contours over Thursday's Upper Midwest 2 km visible satellite shot.
Free AC
Yet another Canadian high pressure cell brings fresh breezes to Minnesota this weekend. We've been lucky this summer. Our hot, muggy episodes have been punctuated by refreshing northwest flow.
Does it get any better than this for a summer weekend in Minnesota?
Heat returns next week
The Upper air maps continue to suggest the return of 90-degree heat potential next week. The persistent heat dome over the Central Plains nudges north into Minnesota again by next Tuesday and Wednesday.
We've sweated through 12 days of 90-degree heat in the Twin Cities this summer. That's already one more than the 30-year annual average of 11 days. I still think we'll end up somewhere between 15 and 20 days of 90-degree heat when this summer is done. There's a good chance we'll add 1 or 2 more 90+ days next Tuesday and Wednesday at MSP.
The Minnesota State Fair begins 3 weeks from today. How did that happen?
Lake Superior: Swimming anyone?
I've written recently about how our warm summer weather is boosting Lake Superior water temps.
Here's a wider view of Lake Superior water temps, which are close to the swimable 70-degree mark as far north as Grand Marais.
Climate Cast solutions discussion
In case you missed it this week, here's Tuesday hour-long climate solutions discussion from MPR's Climate Cast.
