Warm, dry weather to continue, hazy skies to clear Thursday
The sun peeks through the haze and clouds on a sweltering morning in downtown St. Paul on Aug. 26.
Andrew Krueger | MPR News
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Have you gotten outside this week? This unseasonably warm weather has been lovely! One part that is not quite ideal, though, is the haziness in the region.
MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joined MPR News host Nina Moini to explain the smoke in the air and the weather ahead.
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Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
NINA MOINI: This is Minnesota Now. Thank you for listening. I'm Nina Moini in for Cathy Wurzer. Well, have you gotten outside much this week? This unseasonably warm weather has been lovely if you're a summer person. But one part that's not quite ideal, though, is the haziness in the region. So here to explain the smoke in the air and the weather ahead is NPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner. Thanks for being here, Paul.
PAUL HUTTNER: My pleasure, as always, Nina. Thanks.
NINA MOINI: I know the weather's always keeping you on your toes. We're dealing with some air quality issues. Tell us more about that.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's always something, it seems like, in Minnesota. And let's talk about Northwest Minnesota for a minute because that's where the squiggly lines on the weather map are. And those squiggly lines mean smoke. There is an air quality alert for Northwest Minnesota until 10:00 AM tomorrow. It's the this sick-- thick smoke plume. Yeah, maybe it's sick too, a sick smoke plume, from the Western US and Canada, the fires up there.
There's a cold front that's edged into Northwest Minnesota and pushed that smoke down to ground level. So the alert is for Hallock, Roseau, the Lake of the Woods area, down to Bemidji, Fargo-Moorhead, Fergus Falls, Detroit Lakes. Air quality numbers there right now, Nina, unhealthy range, 176 in the Fargo-Moorhead area, 166 in Detroit Lakes, that air quality alert, again, until tomorrow morning.
Now, most of the rest of the smoke, you've seen that milky white appearance to the sky. That's a loft over Eastern Minnesota, the Twin Cities. And the forecast is for improvement here. As we go through tomorrow, that smoke will mix out in Northwest Minnesota, and we'll be just left with smoke aloft, good air quality as we head through the next couple of days.
NINA MOINI: And aloft just means it's settled further up and we're not really experiencing it as much down here?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's about several thousand feet, maybe 10,000 to 15,000 feet above us. So it doesn't make its way to ground level and impact the air that we breathe. So that's the good news when it's aloft, yeah.
NINA MOINI: Thank you. So it has been very warm for September. What are these patterns suggesting for fall?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, endless summer here as we head into September. I tell you what, this is a very stable weather pattern and it looks like it'll last right through this week and maybe into next week. So hazy sun out there the next few days, 85 in the Twin Cities today. We're at 77 now, heading for 85, 86 tomorrow, 80 for Friday, low to mid 80s this weekend, maybe a few degrees cooler, some 70s in northern Minnesota. But, Nina, this pattern looks like it could last right through most of September and maybe into the fall.
NINA MOINI: Wow. Well, I won't switch out any of my cardigans and layers quite yet. This is concerning right now, Hurricane Francine. What's the latest with the landfall and the intensity timing with Francine?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's just south of the New Orleans, Louisiana coast right now, about 200 miles south of New Orleans. Winds are at 90 miles an hour sustained. That's a strong category one, kind of borderline category two. And the forecast models, the tracks have shifted a little bit east. That could bring the eastern eyewall near New Orleans tonight. Peak storm surge is 5 to 10 feet along the coast, 4 to 6 feet, even Lake Pontchartrain right around New Orleans. So that eastern shift means New Orleans, I think, could see a little stronger storm. It looks like it could be right close to category two by the time it hits landfall later this afternoon, into this evening.
NINA MOINI: And does that impact sort of the rest of the country, or would that impact what we're experiencing here, Paul?
PAUL HUTTNER: That moisture from Francine is going to move mainly north-northeast. So, yes, it's going to go through Arkansas, up through the Ohio Valley, maybe bringing rain showers as close to Minnesota as Chicago or parts of southern Wisconsin before it heads into Michigan. So we'll get a pass on any of the direct moisture. But, yes, it's going to bring some heavy rainfall to the central and eastern parts of the country.
NINA MOINI: Good to know. Thank you. And do you want to give us a preview for Climate Cast this week?
PAUL HUTTNER: I will. We're talking about methane. It's kind of the other greenhouse gas. Everybody knows about carbon dioxide. It gets a lot of the headlines. But methane is 30 times better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, and it's rising in the atmosphere. We'll talk to a Washington Post reporter about a new report that shows all the different ways that methane is rising as our climate warms. Pretty interesting stuff. It's a forcing gas for the atmosphere. And we'll talk about it tomorrow on Climate Cast during All Things Considered.
NINA MOINI: Thank you, Paul. Always appreciate your time.
PAUL HUTTNER: My pleasure. Thanks, Nina.
NINA MOINI: That's MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner.
PAUL HUTTNER: My pleasure, as always, Nina. Thanks.
NINA MOINI: I know the weather's always keeping you on your toes. We're dealing with some air quality issues. Tell us more about that.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's always something, it seems like, in Minnesota. And let's talk about Northwest Minnesota for a minute because that's where the squiggly lines on the weather map are. And those squiggly lines mean smoke. There is an air quality alert for Northwest Minnesota until 10:00 AM tomorrow. It's the this sick-- thick smoke plume. Yeah, maybe it's sick too, a sick smoke plume, from the Western US and Canada, the fires up there.
There's a cold front that's edged into Northwest Minnesota and pushed that smoke down to ground level. So the alert is for Hallock, Roseau, the Lake of the Woods area, down to Bemidji, Fargo-Moorhead, Fergus Falls, Detroit Lakes. Air quality numbers there right now, Nina, unhealthy range, 176 in the Fargo-Moorhead area, 166 in Detroit Lakes, that air quality alert, again, until tomorrow morning.
Now, most of the rest of the smoke, you've seen that milky white appearance to the sky. That's a loft over Eastern Minnesota, the Twin Cities. And the forecast is for improvement here. As we go through tomorrow, that smoke will mix out in Northwest Minnesota, and we'll be just left with smoke aloft, good air quality as we head through the next couple of days.
NINA MOINI: And aloft just means it's settled further up and we're not really experiencing it as much down here?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's about several thousand feet, maybe 10,000 to 15,000 feet above us. So it doesn't make its way to ground level and impact the air that we breathe. So that's the good news when it's aloft, yeah.
NINA MOINI: Thank you. So it has been very warm for September. What are these patterns suggesting for fall?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, endless summer here as we head into September. I tell you what, this is a very stable weather pattern and it looks like it'll last right through this week and maybe into next week. So hazy sun out there the next few days, 85 in the Twin Cities today. We're at 77 now, heading for 85, 86 tomorrow, 80 for Friday, low to mid 80s this weekend, maybe a few degrees cooler, some 70s in northern Minnesota. But, Nina, this pattern looks like it could last right through most of September and maybe into the fall.
NINA MOINI: Wow. Well, I won't switch out any of my cardigans and layers quite yet. This is concerning right now, Hurricane Francine. What's the latest with the landfall and the intensity timing with Francine?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's just south of the New Orleans, Louisiana coast right now, about 200 miles south of New Orleans. Winds are at 90 miles an hour sustained. That's a strong category one, kind of borderline category two. And the forecast models, the tracks have shifted a little bit east. That could bring the eastern eyewall near New Orleans tonight. Peak storm surge is 5 to 10 feet along the coast, 4 to 6 feet, even Lake Pontchartrain right around New Orleans. So that eastern shift means New Orleans, I think, could see a little stronger storm. It looks like it could be right close to category two by the time it hits landfall later this afternoon, into this evening.
NINA MOINI: And does that impact sort of the rest of the country, or would that impact what we're experiencing here, Paul?
PAUL HUTTNER: That moisture from Francine is going to move mainly north-northeast. So, yes, it's going to go through Arkansas, up through the Ohio Valley, maybe bringing rain showers as close to Minnesota as Chicago or parts of southern Wisconsin before it heads into Michigan. So we'll get a pass on any of the direct moisture. But, yes, it's going to bring some heavy rainfall to the central and eastern parts of the country.
NINA MOINI: Good to know. Thank you. And do you want to give us a preview for Climate Cast this week?
PAUL HUTTNER: I will. We're talking about methane. It's kind of the other greenhouse gas. Everybody knows about carbon dioxide. It gets a lot of the headlines. But methane is 30 times better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, and it's rising in the atmosphere. We'll talk to a Washington Post reporter about a new report that shows all the different ways that methane is rising as our climate warms. Pretty interesting stuff. It's a forcing gas for the atmosphere. And we'll talk about it tomorrow on Climate Cast during All Things Considered.
NINA MOINI: Thank you, Paul. Always appreciate your time.
PAUL HUTTNER: My pleasure. Thanks, Nina.
NINA MOINI: That's MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner.
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