After severe storms and tornado damage, a mild week ahead
Radar image from tornado in Melrose.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via Iowa Environmental Mesonet
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The southern part of the state saw at least four tornados Monday evening. MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joined Minnesota Now with an update on the damage from those tornadoes plus the weather outlook for the rest of the week.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: It's been a wild week in politics. That is an understatement. But it's taken our minds off a bit from some of the wild weather in Minnesota, earlier this week. Southern part of the state saw a number of tornadoes this week. With an update on just how many twisters we have seen, plus the weather outlook for the rest of the week, here's our chief meteorologist, Paul Huttner. Hey, how are you?
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, Cathy. Good to be here as always, watching the doppler once again today.
CATHY WURZER: So what, is it lit up again today?
PAUL HUTTNER: It's colorful. We don't have any real severe weather risk. But there are showers now, much of Northern, Central Minnesota, Fargo, down to Alexandria, over toward Saint Cloud and then some in Southwest Minnesota, approaching Redwood Falls and Olivia again. They'll get to the Twin Cities maybe later this evening. They're going to fade a bit, Cathy. But Northern Minnesota could pick up another inch of rain.
CATHY WURZER: Well, it's been a little dry, might I say, in Northeastern Minnesota, on the shore. So I'm hoping they'll get a little bit of that rain maybe.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, I think so. Probably less than an inch though.
CATHY WURZER: OK. Well, it's something up there. Let's talk about this tornado outbreak that we had earlier this week.
PAUL HUTTNER: It was wild. Monday night, we had the feisty storms in the Twin cities, the swirling winds. But they were tornadic, southwest and south of the Twin Cities. Cathy, this reminded me of many years ago, I gave a presentation to Minnesota Skywarn, the folks who are severe weather spotters.
And one of the featured speakers there was Chuck Doswell. He's a long time, epic, severe storm researcher from Oklahoma. And he used to call the storms that form on the tail end of the cold front, tail-end Charlie. Because they're in the best environment. They feed off the richest air. And that's exactly what happened Monday night. The tail end of that front was southwest of the Twin cities, and it produced four tornadoes.
Weather service sent three survey teams out. They found four so far. They may find more. They're still reviewing some video and some damage. So Saint James, EF1, 100 miles an hour, that was on the ground for a little over two miles. Janesville, an EF1, 105 miles an hour, that was on the ground for 6.25 miles, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: Wow.
PAUL HUTTNER: And then just south of Waseca, another EF1 tornado, 105 miles, was on the ground for 1.4 miles. And then the fourth tornado, Twin Lakes and Emmons, another EF1, another 105-mile an hour tornado. That was on the ground for 6.6 miles. It uprooted trees. It damaged outbuildings. It even tipped a silo. So, very, very active. Thankfully, no injuries and really not a whole lot of structural damage.
CATHY WURZER: And we don't really get those long track tornadoes around here, do we? That's a little unusual.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, not often. Remember the Saint Peter tornadoes, other tornadoes, Comfrey, in Southwest Minnesota, going back. Some of those were on the ground a long time. But tornadoes tend to be shorter in Minnesota. They tend to be these EF0, EF1 tornadoes. And by the way, we've had 29 tornadoes, according to Storm Prediction Center so far this year. That's getting pretty close to average somewhere in the 30's.
CATHY WURZER: Really? Because it seems like it's been pretty light this summer. But maybe I've not been paying attention. I'm wondering about any severe risks the rest of the week, not really?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, not really. Just a slight risk, or I should say a marginal risk, the lowest level for parts of Southwest Minnesota today. I really don't think we're going to see much severe weather, Cathy. A little bit of rain showers, mainly focusing Northern Minnesota, as I said, could pick up an inch of rain. Twin cities, less than that, maybe a quarter of an inch through tonight. Main chance of rain for the Twin Cities, late this afternoon through this evening, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: So people, there are many people who love this cooler weather. So is it going to hang around a little bit?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's like a little September preview here. It looks great after this rain today. I think we're going to see several dry days, mostly sunny mild, 68, tomorrow 70's, low 70's Friday, low 70's Saturday, maybe 76 or so by Sunday, and 70's into early next week. So if you love this cool and comfy stuff, you're going to love the next week.
CATHY WURZER: But I love Wurzer weather. So I'm waiting for some warmer air, maybe by the State Fair.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, the end of next week, into that following weekend, I think we'll be back in the 80's, Cathy. This heat has been persistent over the Dakotas. They've been in the 90's to around 100 degrees many days. Looks like that may stay anchored there and just nudge us.
The NOAA's outlooks, 8 to 14 days, calling for warmer than average temperatures for Minnesota again. So we'll probably get back into the 80's, maybe nudge 90's again, 3 to 4 weeks saying equal chances. So yeah, the State Fair starts, what, two weeks from tomorrow. I don't know how that happened, but here we are.
[LAUGHTER]
CATHY WURZER: I can't believe it. The whole summer just zipped by. All right. So we also have Climate Cast coming up.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, Climate Cast tomorrow, the concept of climate tipping points, these ideas that we reached states of the atmosphere where climate change and warming isn't steady. It kind of non-linear and lurches forward into a warmer regime. Like if the permafrost melts in the Arctic and releases more methane. And that sort of juices accelerates climate change. So Andrew Friedman, with Axios, wrote about that. And we will talk to him tomorrow on Climate Cast, during All Things Considered.
CATHY WURZER: All right. And of course, you can always get Climate Cast. You can download it too, right?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's podcastable. And you can find it on the MPR News page or just Google Climate. You'll find it.
CATHY WURZER: All right. I will talk to you later. Thank you.
PAUL HUTTNER: Thanks, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: That's MPR's chief meteorologist, Paul Huttner. You can listen to him, by the way, Monday through Friday, with Tom Crann, on All Things Considered, 3:00 until 6:00 PM, updated weather information, all the time. You can check it out by going to mprnews.org. Updraft is where you find that.
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, Cathy. Good to be here as always, watching the doppler once again today.
CATHY WURZER: So what, is it lit up again today?
PAUL HUTTNER: It's colorful. We don't have any real severe weather risk. But there are showers now, much of Northern, Central Minnesota, Fargo, down to Alexandria, over toward Saint Cloud and then some in Southwest Minnesota, approaching Redwood Falls and Olivia again. They'll get to the Twin Cities maybe later this evening. They're going to fade a bit, Cathy. But Northern Minnesota could pick up another inch of rain.
CATHY WURZER: Well, it's been a little dry, might I say, in Northeastern Minnesota, on the shore. So I'm hoping they'll get a little bit of that rain maybe.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, I think so. Probably less than an inch though.
CATHY WURZER: OK. Well, it's something up there. Let's talk about this tornado outbreak that we had earlier this week.
PAUL HUTTNER: It was wild. Monday night, we had the feisty storms in the Twin cities, the swirling winds. But they were tornadic, southwest and south of the Twin Cities. Cathy, this reminded me of many years ago, I gave a presentation to Minnesota Skywarn, the folks who are severe weather spotters.
And one of the featured speakers there was Chuck Doswell. He's a long time, epic, severe storm researcher from Oklahoma. And he used to call the storms that form on the tail end of the cold front, tail-end Charlie. Because they're in the best environment. They feed off the richest air. And that's exactly what happened Monday night. The tail end of that front was southwest of the Twin cities, and it produced four tornadoes.
Weather service sent three survey teams out. They found four so far. They may find more. They're still reviewing some video and some damage. So Saint James, EF1, 100 miles an hour, that was on the ground for a little over two miles. Janesville, an EF1, 105 miles an hour, that was on the ground for 6.25 miles, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: Wow.
PAUL HUTTNER: And then just south of Waseca, another EF1 tornado, 105 miles, was on the ground for 1.4 miles. And then the fourth tornado, Twin Lakes and Emmons, another EF1, another 105-mile an hour tornado. That was on the ground for 6.6 miles. It uprooted trees. It damaged outbuildings. It even tipped a silo. So, very, very active. Thankfully, no injuries and really not a whole lot of structural damage.
CATHY WURZER: And we don't really get those long track tornadoes around here, do we? That's a little unusual.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, not often. Remember the Saint Peter tornadoes, other tornadoes, Comfrey, in Southwest Minnesota, going back. Some of those were on the ground a long time. But tornadoes tend to be shorter in Minnesota. They tend to be these EF0, EF1 tornadoes. And by the way, we've had 29 tornadoes, according to Storm Prediction Center so far this year. That's getting pretty close to average somewhere in the 30's.
CATHY WURZER: Really? Because it seems like it's been pretty light this summer. But maybe I've not been paying attention. I'm wondering about any severe risks the rest of the week, not really?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, not really. Just a slight risk, or I should say a marginal risk, the lowest level for parts of Southwest Minnesota today. I really don't think we're going to see much severe weather, Cathy. A little bit of rain showers, mainly focusing Northern Minnesota, as I said, could pick up an inch of rain. Twin cities, less than that, maybe a quarter of an inch through tonight. Main chance of rain for the Twin Cities, late this afternoon through this evening, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: So people, there are many people who love this cooler weather. So is it going to hang around a little bit?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's like a little September preview here. It looks great after this rain today. I think we're going to see several dry days, mostly sunny mild, 68, tomorrow 70's, low 70's Friday, low 70's Saturday, maybe 76 or so by Sunday, and 70's into early next week. So if you love this cool and comfy stuff, you're going to love the next week.
CATHY WURZER: But I love Wurzer weather. So I'm waiting for some warmer air, maybe by the State Fair.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, the end of next week, into that following weekend, I think we'll be back in the 80's, Cathy. This heat has been persistent over the Dakotas. They've been in the 90's to around 100 degrees many days. Looks like that may stay anchored there and just nudge us.
The NOAA's outlooks, 8 to 14 days, calling for warmer than average temperatures for Minnesota again. So we'll probably get back into the 80's, maybe nudge 90's again, 3 to 4 weeks saying equal chances. So yeah, the State Fair starts, what, two weeks from tomorrow. I don't know how that happened, but here we are.
[LAUGHTER]
CATHY WURZER: I can't believe it. The whole summer just zipped by. All right. So we also have Climate Cast coming up.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, Climate Cast tomorrow, the concept of climate tipping points, these ideas that we reached states of the atmosphere where climate change and warming isn't steady. It kind of non-linear and lurches forward into a warmer regime. Like if the permafrost melts in the Arctic and releases more methane. And that sort of juices accelerates climate change. So Andrew Friedman, with Axios, wrote about that. And we will talk to him tomorrow on Climate Cast, during All Things Considered.
CATHY WURZER: All right. And of course, you can always get Climate Cast. You can download it too, right?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's podcastable. And you can find it on the MPR News page or just Google Climate. You'll find it.
CATHY WURZER: All right. I will talk to you later. Thank you.
PAUL HUTTNER: Thanks, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: That's MPR's chief meteorologist, Paul Huttner. You can listen to him, by the way, Monday through Friday, with Tom Crann, on All Things Considered, 3:00 until 6:00 PM, updated weather information, all the time. You can check it out by going to mprnews.org. Updraft is where you find that.
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