MPR meteorologist Paul Huttner discusses the latest research on our changing climate and the consequences we’re seeing here in Minnesota and worldwide. Hear Climate Cast each Thursday on MPR’s 

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MPR meteorologist Paul Huttner discusses the latest research on our changing climate and the consequences we’re seeing here in Minnesota and worldwide.


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The Mississippi River has topped an endangered rivers list. Extreme floods, drought cycles, toxic runoff and poor river management threaten it. MPR News correspondent Kirsti Marohn​ spoke to chief meteorologist Paul Huttner about the stresses on this vital waterway.

Mississippi named 'most endangered' river in the U.S.

The Mississippi River has topped an endangered rivers list. Extreme floods, drought cycles, toxic runoff and poor river management threaten it. MPR News correspondent Kirsti Marohn​ spoke to chief meteorologist Paul Huttner about the stresses on this vital waterway.


Tamara Dean, author of “Shelter and Storm: At Home in the Driftless,” talks to MPR chief meteorologist Paul Huttner about climate change and rethinking the lifestyle choices we make to lower our carbon footprint but still live productive lives. 

Writer turned citizen scientist offers tips on living lightly to reduce your carbon footprint

Tamara Dean, author of “Shelter and Storm: At Home in the Driftless,” talks to MPR chief meteorologist Paul Huttner about climate change and rethinking the lifestyle choices we make to lower our carbon footprint but still live productive lives. 


Minnesota’s longer growing season means a much longer pollen season. That’s bad news for allergy sufferers. MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner talks with Minnesota Star Tribune reporter Kristoffer Tigue about Minnesota’s growing allergy season. 

It’s not your imagination, Minnesota is experiencing a longer allergy season

Minnesota’s longer growing season means a much longer pollen season. That’s bad news for allergy sufferers. MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner talks with Minnesota Star Tribune reporter Kristoffer Tigue about Minnesota’s growing allergy season. 


It’s not your imagination, Minnesota is experiencing a longer allergy season 

Minnesota's unpredictable winter could be the new normal. 

MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner talks with state climatologist Pete Boulay about the Minnesota’s tug-of-war with winter. 


Minnesota's volatile winter could be the new normal

The U.S. military unearthed data about rising sea levels in the early 1950s — and has been closely watching this threat to national security ever since. MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner and geoscientist Paul Bierman talk about climate research by the U.S. Military Forces.

New book traces 75-year history of U.S. military climate research

The U.S. military unearthed data about rising sea levels in the early 1950s — and has been closely watching this threat to national security ever since. MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner and geoscientist Paul Bierman talk about climate research by the U.S. Military Forces. 


MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner and journalist Allison Prang talk about Minnesota’s efforts to speed up the clean-energy permitting process so the state can achieve its goals. 

Minnesota ‘red-tape experiment’ streamlines permitting process to achieve carbon-free grid

MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner and journalist Allison Prang talk about Minnesota’s efforts to speed up the clean-energy permitting process so the state can achieve its goals. 


MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner talks Nick Halter, Twin Cities reporter at Axios, about the many reasons ducks are staying in Minnesota all winter. 

Forget migration. Ducks are choosing to chill in Minnesota all winter long

MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner talks Nick Halter, Twin Cities reporter at Axios, about the many reasons ducks are staying in Minnesota all winter. 


MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner talks with the Minnesota Star Tribune’s Walker Orenstein about Minnesota’s increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Increasing greenhouse gas emissions may put Minnesota climate goals out of reach

MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner talks with the Minnesota Star Tribune’s Walker Orenstein about Minnesota’s increasing greenhouse gas emissions. 


Tapping into carbon capture technology, and its potential to help mitigate climate change.

Slowing climate change by ‘putting carbon back where it came from’

MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner talks with Ben Grove, with the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force, about decarbonizing the atmosphere to address climate change. 








Meteorologist travels to Antarctica to witness ice loss

MPR News meteorologists Paul Huttner and Sven Sundgaard talk about Antarctica, and how rising temperature are changing the environment for wild on land and sea.  


Climate Cast ®

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

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Updraft® is your source for Minnesota forecasts and insights from our expert meteorologists, Paul Huttner, Sven Sundgaard and Mandy Thalhuber.

MPR News brings you the latest weather outlook, across all of Minnesota, so you can be better prepared for your day.

Get in-depth Minnesota weather forecasts with Updraft® by MPR News. Stay updated with the latest from our meteorologists.

We enjoy a pretty nice last weekend of April. Monday brings a severe storms risk to much of Minnesota. 


Pretty nice weekend ahead; 80 degrees and a severe storm risk possible Monday

A few light rain showers will stick around Friday morning, but clearing skies will take over by lunch. Saturday looks absolutely beautiful with highs near 65 and a light breeze out of the east. More rain is in the forecast for Sunday night and we could see a stormy Monday.


Rain moves out, bringing sun and warmth later Friday and Saturday

Our weather turns sunnier for the weekend. Monday brings a shot at 80 degrees in the south with severe weather possible. 


Showers end Friday morning; nicer weekend but a severe risk Monday

The latest United States Drought Monitor report shows growing concern for northwestern Minnesota, where precipitation has been scarce over the past month. An active weather pattern has funneled most of the recent rainfall into the eastern and southern half of the state.


Latest drought report shows concerns for northwestern Minnesota

Scattered showers will continue to develop and fill in across southern Minnesota Thursday into Thursday night. Skies clear Friday with more rain and thunder possible by Sunday and Monday. 


Soggy Thursday into the evening across southern Minnesota 

A weather system brings widespread rain Thursday especially across southern Minnesota. 


Thursday soaker; severe storms possible Monday

Our wet weather pattern continues Thursday across southern Minnesota. Strong to severe storms look possible next Monday. 


Thursday soaker ahead; severe risk emerging Monday

We get a mostly dry break Wednesday with just a few isolated showers and partly cloudy skies. More rain develops for Thursday into Thursday night and again Sunday into early next week. 


Pleasant Wednesday ahead of more rain developing Thursday 

Highs in the 70s are becoming more frequent. Next week is trending drier after Monday’s rain chances.


Spectacular Wednesday ahead; a shot at 80 degrees Monday

Our springy April weather pattern continues this week. Highs could hit 70 in the south Wednesday.


On the cusp of spring; next rain likely Thursday 

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Stay informed on weather and climate news in Minnesota and beyond. Get the latest updates and expert insights from MPR News.


With soil temperatures in the upper 40s to 50s, farmers around Minnesota are planting sugar beets, wheat and corn. But does all this crop planting mean gardening season is here? 


Farmers are already planting, so can gardeners follow suit? 

A few light rain showers will stick around Friday morning, but clearing skies will take over by lunch. Saturday looks absolutely beautiful with highs near 65 and a light breeze out of the east. More rain is in the forecast for Sunday night and we could see a stormy Monday.

Scattered showers will continue to develop and fill in across southern Minnesota Thursday into Thursday night. Skies clear Friday with more rain and thunder possible by Sunday and Monday. 

Soggy Thursday and night for southern Minnesota

A weather system brings widespread rain Thursday especially across southern Minnesota. 

MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner joins MPR News host Emily Bright with details on the forecast, plus the latest on funding for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate centers. 

Weather update: warm, sunny weekend to follow Thursday rain

EMILY BRIGHT: This is Minnesota Now. I'm Emily Bright in for Nina Moini. It is shaping up to be a remarkably warm and sunny spring day today. I hope you get the chance to spend a little time outside, enjoying the sun and this pleasant temperature. Well, here to share some more with us about what we can expect this week is MPR's chief meteorologist Paul Huttner. Hi, Paul. Have you gotten a chance to get a walk today at all? 

PAUL HUTTNER: Not yet, Emily, but I'm hoping to do that here in the next hour or so. Pretty nice out there in most of Minnesota today. A little cloudy and chilly in the Northwest, though. 

EMILY BRIGHT: Well, it's been great weather for Earth Day, people out doing park cleanups and all of that. And I know Earth Day was founded right here in the Midwest in 1970. What have we learned? What have we accomplished since then? 

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, and some of us are old enough to remember that first Earth Day, Emily. Listen, no matter who you are in Minnesota, we love our environment. If you're a boater, a camper, a hunter, or a fisher person, we just love our natural environment, Minnesota. And I think Minnesota has done a lot of things right since that first Earth Day. I wrote about it this week in Updraft. I'll pick a couple of things. One, cleaner water. In the '60s and '70s, we used to dump raw sewage into our lakes, Emily, like Lake Minnetonka-- 

EMILY BRIGHT: Ugh. 

PAUL HUTTNER: I know-- in the western suburbs. Our lakes are much cleaner since then. In fact, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has a list of impaired lakes, and they've removed 64 lakes from that list since 2004. So that's good news. Our water is getting cleaner in Minnesota. 

We've also had a renewable energy boom. We've gone from 0 to 33% renewable energy in about the past 25 years. And Minnesota's power emissions have dropped 52% from 2005 levels. So that's pretty impressive. 

And then one last thing I would say for having done 12 years of our Climate Cast series, 600 episodes, Minnesota's attitudes on climate change awareness have improved, and in fact, so has the country. Yale does a study on this, and now 54% of people are either alarmed or concerned or really active about climate change. Only 10% dismiss climate change. So interesting how those attitudes have shifted in the last 20 years or so. 

EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, I really appreciate that, have we come from-- like, "how far have we come" perspective. So what can we expect this week, this weekend, rain? 

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, a little bit of everything. Feeling more like spring out there today in Central and Southern Minnesota. We hit 70 in the Twin Cities yesterday. That was the fifth time this spring, and I think we'll get there again today. 

There are some scattered light showers, some of it not reaching the ground, Montevideo, Redwood Falls, into the Southern Twin Cities south to the Iowa border. But it won't be much today. So around 70. Northwest Minnesota, you're going, yeah, it's chilly and cloudy up here. I get it. It's in the 40s and 50s. 

Then tomorrow, that rain you mentioned, a pretty good system coming in. It will start in the morning, but mostly in the afternoon. We'll top out at 57 in the Twin Cities. We'll get an inch of rain, Emily, from the Twin Cities south and east through Rochester to the Iowa border. Maybe a little band of 2 inches from about Owatonna up to Redwing on the European model. 

And then that ends early Friday. We clear out. 61 in the afternoon. Saturday looks nice, the better day of the weekend, I think, mostly sunny and 65. Sunday some clouds, a chance of rain, and we'll be up about 69. 

EMILY BRIGHT: And any signs of warmer weather ahead? I know, I guess, we're already above average. 

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, next week looks like we could see more 70s, potentially, and maybe 80 degrees on Monday in Southern Minnesota. We'll have a chance of thunderstorms Monday. Some of those will be strong. We'll have to keep an eye on that. And then drier, it looks like, later the rest of next week, mainly in the 60s. But Emily, that weekend of May 3 and 4, that first weekend in May, some of the models are cranking out 70 degrees again for Central and Southern Minnesota. 

EMILY BRIGHT: That sounds pretty much amazing. So Paul, I want to ask you, because late last week, NOAA climate centers had their funding cut. The Midwest Region website went dark, and then funding got restored. So catch people up. What are climate centers, and what is going on there? 

PAUL HUTTNER: They're really important for a lot of different sectors of society and people who work with weather and climate-- farmers, number one. Now, water managers, meteorologists, the general public, when we track things like droughts and soil moisture and precipitation. So you're right. The Midwest Regional Climate Center and others went dark on April 17, magically popped up again yesterday. 

Apparently, people made enough noise that they decided to restore that funding. So interesting times we live in. But I'm glad to see those back up because they matter to a lot of people and we use those maps in Updraft here. 

EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, well, and I appreciate Updraft. I check it every day. Thank you, Paul. 

PAUL HUTTNER: Appreciate it. Thanks, Emily. 

EMILY BRIGHT: That was NPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner. 

MPR chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joins MPR News host Emily Bright with details on the forecast, plus the latest on funding for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate centers. 


We get a mostly dry break Wednesday with just a few isolated showers and partly cloudy skies. More rain develops for Thursday into Thursday night and again Sunday into early next week. 

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Latest Updraft®

Pretty nice weekend ahead; 80 degrees and a severe storm risk possible Monday

Interactive Radar

Weather News

Farmers are already planting, so can gardeners follow suit?

Ask Sven and Paul — MPR News meteorologists answer your weather- and climate-related questions

Climate Cast®

Mississippi named 'most endangered' river in the U.S.

Writer turned citizen scientist offers tips on living lightly to reduce your carbon footprint

It’s not your imagination, Minnesota is experiencing a longer allergy season