It has been a warm fall so far, despite our one day light snow experience recently. The bigger issue is the lack of rain and that’s been true since the beginning of summer.
WCCO Radio Chief Meteorologist Paul Douglas explains how dry we’ve been, what the Election Day outlook is (two weeks from today!), and the rest of this week’s weather.
Dry, dry, dry
It's been plenty warm and plenty dry. And that led to the dirty rain yesterday. Yes, dirty rain. Douglas explains why.
“A lot of people complaining about muddy vehicles, and it was actually dust being blown northward into Minnesota from as far away as Nebraska and Kansas from a significant dust storm,” Douglas told Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News.
While we saw just a little rain, under a tenth of an inch at MSP, it did nothing to tamp down the dust and alleviate our drought conditions.
“It has been so dry, there is extreme drought now in much of the metro,” Douglas says. “The soil is dry and dusty and the winds were gusting up to 45 (mph), lofting all that dirt, all that dust into the air. All that topsoil. So, you know, a little more common for Western Oklahoma, Western Kansas than for Minnesota. But every now and then we get a taste.”
Election Day Outlook
It’s really too early to say, but there is always concern in Minnesota in early November that weather could play a role in Elections. There have been a few over the years with record cold temps (1936), blowing snow (1991), and even a three-day snow event (1992). None of those stopped Minnesota from leading the country in voter turnout by the way. We are a hardy bunch after all.
“People already asking me about Election Day,” Douglas said. “There will be weather, I'm just not sure looking out two weeks. We can look with some accuracy, some skill out to about a week. Beyond that, especially in this kind of a pattern, good luck. But I doubt we'll be in the 60s this year.
That said, I doubt we'll have to struggle through snow or ice to get to the polling sites two weeks from today.”
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It’s Been a Long Wait for Fall-Like
It cools off back to average Tuesday, but then temps go up again. Some, like Vineeta, are ready for cooler temperatures and aren’t happy about 70+ right now. Douglas isn’t one of them.
“Any day you can be above 60 this time of year, for me, it's good,” says Douglas. “It’s a bonus. Winter is coming.”
Douglas also adds that this is a trend that is likely to stick around. We will get more snow and ice. We also get more ice than we used to, especially in southern Minnesota.
“I think a lot of people aren't so much scared of the Arctic fronts. It's more of an annoyance,” says Douglas. “I tell my friends and family out east, it doesn't get painfully cold that often anymore. I could live without the ice. We are seeing more ice during our Minnesota winters now, but winter's coming. It’s just been delayed. Soak up these quiet days and pray for rain.”
Forecast
Despite a gray and damp start this morning, the sun should try to struggle through later on Tuesday Douglas predicts.
“Bright sunshine tomorrow (Wednesday), low fifties, close to average,” Douglas said on the WCCO Morning News. “Then I think we'll be at or just above 60 from Friday through Tuesday of next week. Another fine weekend shaping up, not as balmy as last weekend, but I'll take low 60s considering we could be knee deep in snow right now. And then the long range models bring some rain in the middle of next week. I think by the end of next week it'll be in the 40s.”
Tuesday: High: 52, low 37 with sunshine coming later, breezy and cool.
Wednesday: High 53 with more sunshine.
Thursday: High 56, low 38 with increasing cloudiness.
Friday: High 59, low 44 with partly sunny skies.
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