Minnesota to finish the week under sunshine, warmer temperatures after first frost
Fall colors are peaking along Skyline Parkway in Duluth on Oct. 10.
Andrew Krueger | MPR News
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If you were up early this morning in the Twin Cities you may have seen a little frost on your windshield or the front lawn. The metro temperatures finally dipped below freezing Tuesday night. MPR chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joins MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the first week of frost, plus the statewide forecast ahead.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: City, did you notice the stuff on your windshield if you had your car outside, or maybe the front lawn, or the roof this morning. That was frost. That was frost. Metro area temperatures finally dipped below freezing last night, but it looks like the temperatures won't stay down for long. Our chief meteorologist Paul Huttner is here to talk about it. Hey, Paul, how are you?
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey.
CATHY WURZER: Hey.
PAUL HUTTNER: I'm great. How are you on this fabulous autumnal day?
CATHY WURZER: It is lovely, is it not? Well, it was bound to happen. The growing season is done. It pretty much is over, right?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah. And pretty typical for this time of the year for most of Minnesota to see a frost or a freeze. Interesting to note, we dipped to 34 at Twin Cities airport. So in the inner core of the Twin Cities, we haven't quite hit 32 yet in a lot of areas. But 17 in Hibbing this morning, if you can believe that. Saint Cloud 22, Albert Lee 27, Princeton 23. That 34 Twin Cities airport this morning, the coldest so far this season.
The average date of our first 32 degree reading is October 18. So that's Friday, so we're really close. The latest, November 18. But it looks like, Cathy, we're going to get another one to two weeks here without a freeze right in the inner Twin Cities, the growing season officially at Twin Cities airport today is at 180 days. The average is 176. So we're going to push that another week or two, I think, before we get a freeze right in the Twin Cities core.
CATHY WURZER: Mhm. OK. It looks like it's going to warm up.
PAUL HUTTNER: Absolutely. 61 today. We've got that South breeze now gusting pretty high across Western Minnesota. Red flag warnings, fire danger, again. Low humidity, that'll be going on, I think, through the week. Tomorrow we hit 70 in the Twin Cities and those winds will kick up to 35 miles an hour tomorrow and Friday. 73 on Friday, 73 on Saturday. The winds will mellow out this weekend. Sunday, sunny and 76. Cathy, it's going to be a lovely, lovely autumnal almost late summer like weekend with temperatures 15 to 20 degrees warmer than normal again.
CATHY WURZER: I just can't get my head wrapped around that. What concerns me is the warmth, and the wind, and the dry. So I know we're going to find out, what, tomorrow morning about the drought monitor?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, and I think it's going to expand that area of severe drought that we saw debut last week. And I think it won't be more than a couple of weeks before we might see extreme drought again. Cathy, days like today, the wind, the sun sucking that moisture out of the soil, the lakes. There's two kinds of drought. There's agricultural drought with the soils, there's hydrologic drought with things like the Mississippi River being so low, your lakes, your ponds are shrinking.
And I don't see any rainfall in the forecast, meaningful rain, for the next 10 days. The European model is dry, other models are dry. So I think we're in that window now where we only have about six to eight weeks left before the freeze up in the soils, and we need two to four widespread soaking rains before then to try to claw our way back. So we've been pretty lucky the last few years, but this is our fourth year where we've spiraled down into drought, Cathy. So we're hopeful, but right now I don't see anything on the weather map. So fingers crossed for November and even the first week or two of December that it's super wet out there.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah. The rest of us agree with you, too. So it looks like we've got a veritable smorgasbord of celestial wonderment in the night sky here. I've yet to see the comet Atlas, and I understand, I guess, there might be another shot at the Northern lights tonight? I mean, and there's oh, the super full moon, too.
[CHUCKLES]
What the heck.
PAUL HUTTNER: It's all happening. This has been one of the best years for skywatching, I think, that I can remember. Because we've seen the Northern lights four or five times now across Minnesota.
CATHY WURZER: You have. You have. I have not.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, once. I caught it once, which was pretty good. But also the moons, the eclipses, and yes you mentioned Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which is that comet. Which I saw it last night. It was faint for me, but a lot of people sent in really cool pictures. It was discovered, Tsuchinshan means purple mountain, the observatory in China, and also Atlas in the United States. And it is visible now in the West Southwest sky after sunset.
You'll see Venus. It's bright, low on the horizon. Look up and to the about 45 minutes, an hour after sunset, and you can see it with the naked eye and also binoculars. And it's rising in the sky from now through the end of October. So check it out. It'll get a little dimmer as we go through October. But this is a once in a lifetime thing, Cathy, for this comet because it has an 80,000 year orbit. So you won't see this one again. Get out there. And the skies look clear this week. This will be a great week to see it.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. OK. And by the way, nicely done with the pronunciation. I know you've got climate gas this week. What are you going to talk about?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, farmers in Minnesota. We are always thinking about farmers in Minnesota dealing with the weather and the climate shifts that they're seeing in their fields. State of Minnesota has some AG grants, and there a big meeting in an Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake last week. We will talk about how they're using those grants to make changes to adapt in their field. Noah Fish from Agweek and I had a conversation. We'll air that tomorrow on Climate Cast during All Things Considered.
CATHY WURZER: All right. And I also hope you get outside and enjoy the nice weather.
PAUL HUTTNER: Oh, thank you. I will try to do that.
CATHY WURZER: All right. Paul Huttner, Thank you.
PAUL HUTTNER: Thanksy.
CATHY WURZER: That's MPR Chief meteorologist, Paul Huttner. By the way, if you'd like to listen to Paul, he's on Tom Kranz show All Things Considered Monday through Friday, starting at 3 o' clock in the afternoon. You can always check out the Updraft blog for the latest weather information, that can be found at mprnews.org.
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey.
CATHY WURZER: Hey.
PAUL HUTTNER: I'm great. How are you on this fabulous autumnal day?
CATHY WURZER: It is lovely, is it not? Well, it was bound to happen. The growing season is done. It pretty much is over, right?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah. And pretty typical for this time of the year for most of Minnesota to see a frost or a freeze. Interesting to note, we dipped to 34 at Twin Cities airport. So in the inner core of the Twin Cities, we haven't quite hit 32 yet in a lot of areas. But 17 in Hibbing this morning, if you can believe that. Saint Cloud 22, Albert Lee 27, Princeton 23. That 34 Twin Cities airport this morning, the coldest so far this season.
The average date of our first 32 degree reading is October 18. So that's Friday, so we're really close. The latest, November 18. But it looks like, Cathy, we're going to get another one to two weeks here without a freeze right in the inner Twin Cities, the growing season officially at Twin Cities airport today is at 180 days. The average is 176. So we're going to push that another week or two, I think, before we get a freeze right in the Twin Cities core.
CATHY WURZER: Mhm. OK. It looks like it's going to warm up.
PAUL HUTTNER: Absolutely. 61 today. We've got that South breeze now gusting pretty high across Western Minnesota. Red flag warnings, fire danger, again. Low humidity, that'll be going on, I think, through the week. Tomorrow we hit 70 in the Twin Cities and those winds will kick up to 35 miles an hour tomorrow and Friday. 73 on Friday, 73 on Saturday. The winds will mellow out this weekend. Sunday, sunny and 76. Cathy, it's going to be a lovely, lovely autumnal almost late summer like weekend with temperatures 15 to 20 degrees warmer than normal again.
CATHY WURZER: I just can't get my head wrapped around that. What concerns me is the warmth, and the wind, and the dry. So I know we're going to find out, what, tomorrow morning about the drought monitor?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, and I think it's going to expand that area of severe drought that we saw debut last week. And I think it won't be more than a couple of weeks before we might see extreme drought again. Cathy, days like today, the wind, the sun sucking that moisture out of the soil, the lakes. There's two kinds of drought. There's agricultural drought with the soils, there's hydrologic drought with things like the Mississippi River being so low, your lakes, your ponds are shrinking.
And I don't see any rainfall in the forecast, meaningful rain, for the next 10 days. The European model is dry, other models are dry. So I think we're in that window now where we only have about six to eight weeks left before the freeze up in the soils, and we need two to four widespread soaking rains before then to try to claw our way back. So we've been pretty lucky the last few years, but this is our fourth year where we've spiraled down into drought, Cathy. So we're hopeful, but right now I don't see anything on the weather map. So fingers crossed for November and even the first week or two of December that it's super wet out there.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah. The rest of us agree with you, too. So it looks like we've got a veritable smorgasbord of celestial wonderment in the night sky here. I've yet to see the comet Atlas, and I understand, I guess, there might be another shot at the Northern lights tonight? I mean, and there's oh, the super full moon, too.
[CHUCKLES]
What the heck.
PAUL HUTTNER: It's all happening. This has been one of the best years for skywatching, I think, that I can remember. Because we've seen the Northern lights four or five times now across Minnesota.
CATHY WURZER: You have. You have. I have not.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, once. I caught it once, which was pretty good. But also the moons, the eclipses, and yes you mentioned Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which is that comet. Which I saw it last night. It was faint for me, but a lot of people sent in really cool pictures. It was discovered, Tsuchinshan means purple mountain, the observatory in China, and also Atlas in the United States. And it is visible now in the West Southwest sky after sunset.
You'll see Venus. It's bright, low on the horizon. Look up and to the about 45 minutes, an hour after sunset, and you can see it with the naked eye and also binoculars. And it's rising in the sky from now through the end of October. So check it out. It'll get a little dimmer as we go through October. But this is a once in a lifetime thing, Cathy, for this comet because it has an 80,000 year orbit. So you won't see this one again. Get out there. And the skies look clear this week. This will be a great week to see it.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. OK. And by the way, nicely done with the pronunciation. I know you've got climate gas this week. What are you going to talk about?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, farmers in Minnesota. We are always thinking about farmers in Minnesota dealing with the weather and the climate shifts that they're seeing in their fields. State of Minnesota has some AG grants, and there a big meeting in an Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake last week. We will talk about how they're using those grants to make changes to adapt in their field. Noah Fish from Agweek and I had a conversation. We'll air that tomorrow on Climate Cast during All Things Considered.
CATHY WURZER: All right. And I also hope you get outside and enjoy the nice weather.
PAUL HUTTNER: Oh, thank you. I will try to do that.
CATHY WURZER: All right. Paul Huttner, Thank you.
PAUL HUTTNER: Thanksy.
CATHY WURZER: That's MPR Chief meteorologist, Paul Huttner. By the way, if you'd like to listen to Paul, he's on Tom Kranz show All Things Considered Monday through Friday, starting at 3 o' clock in the afternoon. You can always check out the Updraft blog for the latest weather information, that can be found at mprnews.org.
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