If you’re not used to wearing shorts and t-shirts in the middle of October, here’s a little more proof that it’s been an unusual fall so far.
Sunday afternoon, there was a tornado warning in Minnesota. North of Grand Marais. That’s a place that would find a tornado warning unusual in July, let alone October.
In fact, according to WCCO Meteorologist Paul Douglas, it’s the first tornado warning in all of Cook County in a long time.
“The Cook country tornado warning yesterday was the first one issued by the NWS since 2008,” according Douglas. “There were no reports of any touchdowns, but there was some wind damage in the Arrowhead.”
Douglas adds that despite that tornado warning being unusual, it is far from the latest warning issued in Minnesota.
“Yes, it's unusual to get tornadoes this late,” says Douglas. “But Minnesota's latest tornado was back on November 13, 1931 near Maple Plain.”
We’ve been seeing a streak of above normal temperatures so far in October, with the Twin Cities coming close to 70 again on Monday. But a fairly large system is moving into town Wednesday that looks like it’ll not only soak the area with heavy rain, but will also drop temps back down to more normal levels.
“I see a lot of rain Wednesday but probably nothing severe,” Douglas adds.
Bring your umbrellas when you leave the house Wednesday, and you might need those jackets and sweatshirts by Thursday-Friday. Long range forecasts are now saying our first big cool down is a couple of weeks away. Parts of the state could potentially see the first frost of the season as early as Saturday.
The 30-year average for the Twin Cities’ first frost would be October 13th according to Douglas. We’ll certainly be well past that in 2021.