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Rainy Friday Results
A batch of heavy rain impacted the region through the morning/midday hours on Friday, bringing with it some much-needed rain. Some areas across central and southern Minnesota picked up over an inch of rain, including the following:
- 1.41" - Rochester
- 1.29" - Little Falls
- 1.26" - Crystal
- 1.24" - St. Cloud
- 1.09" - Long Prairie
My only complaint about the rain? We don't need downpours. What we need to help the drought situation is this inch of rain, but for it to slowly occur throughout the day so it can actually soak into the ground without it just running off into the storm drains and rivers.
The 0.95" of rain that fell Friday at MSP is now the second wettest day of the year so far. After a fairly dry summer so far, August has quickly racked up three of the wettest days of the year: yesterday, last Sunday (0.77" - 6th wettest), and Saturday the 5th (0.57" - tied for the 8th wettest).
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More Clouds Than Sun Again Sunday
After a cloudy Saturday across the region, I'm expecting somewhat similar weather as we head through Sunday - though we could see a touch more sun as we head through the afternoon hours. Morning temperatures will be right around 60F with afternoon highs climbing to around 80F.
Looking statewide we'll see a mix of sun and clouds for your Sunday, with more clouds than sunshine to begin the day but those clouds should slowly thin throughout the day. A few showers or storms will be possible at times in northern Minnesota.
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Several Rain Chances This Upcoming Week
The good news drought-wise is that we are tracking at least some chances of rain during the upcoming week. The bad news: none of these are exactly great chances at the moment, and we'll have to wait a few more days to see if any of these actually look promising. I would almost count that if you want to continue to have a green lawn sprinklers are going to be the best option at the moment. Highs through the work week look to be around or slightly below average.
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With Any Luck The Sun Comes Out Today
By Paul Douglas
You don't have to remind me when I'm wrong. My loving, no-nonsense, brutally-honest wife of 38 years will do the job for you. Saturday was a kick in the Doppler. "You said the sun would be out! What time will the SUN come out? We came to the cabin to swim, but it's too cloudy, windy and damp. How does make you feel?" Awful. To be clear, I was right but Mother Nature got it wrong. Take me now, Lord.
Skies often clear rapidly behind cool fronts, but Friday's rain left the lowest mile of the atmosphere saturated, trapping a stubborn "canopy of crud" (low, lumpy stratocumulus clouds). The sun angle in mid-August isn't as high as June or July, when low clouds usually burn off quickly. Apologies.
In theory, the sun is out today with afternoon highs near 80F, and less wind. The sunniest weather this week comes today into Wednesday. Showery rains stalled over Minnesota the latter half of the week may drop .50 - 1" rain.
Personal note: until further notice I'll be in the FBI Witness Protection Program.
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Paul's Extended Twin Cities Forecast
SUNDAY: Warm sunshine. Wake up 59. High 81. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind NE 5-10 mph.
MONDAY: Partly sunny and sticky. Wake up 63. High 82. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind SE 5-10 mph.
TUESDAY: Lukewarm sunshine. Wake up 64. High 82. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind S 5-10 mph.
WEDNESDAY: Intervals of sunshine. Wake up 65. High 83. Chance of precipitation 20%. Wind S 5-10 mph.
THURSDAY: A few showers and T-storms. Wake up 66. High 80. Chance of precipitation 60%. Wind W 3-8 mph.
FRIDAY: Widespread showers, wettest day? Wake up 65. High 75. Chance of precipitation 80%. Wind N 5-10 mph.
SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy, isolated shower. Wake up 66. High 77. Chance of precipitation 30%. Wind NE 7-12 mph.
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Minneapolis Weather Almanac And Sun Data
August 14th
*Length Of Day: 14 hours, 6 minutes, and 58 seconds
*Daylight LOST Since Yesterday: 2 minutes and 44 seconds
*When Do We Drop Below 14 Hours Of Daylight?: August 17 (13 hours, 58 minutes, 36 seconds)
*When Does The Sun Start Rising At/After 7 AM?: September 22nd (7:00 AM)
*When Does The Sun Start Setting At/Before 8 PM?: August 26th (8:00 PM)
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This Day in Weather History
August 14th
1978: The Boundary Waters area is hit by a strong tornado. Some of the damage could still be seen 10 years later.
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National Weather Forecast
Scattered areas of showers and storms will be possible across portions of the lower 48 on Sunday. These areas include parts of southern Texas due to a weak area of low pressure moving in from the Gulf of Mexico, a system moving through the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and a system in the Northern Plains.
The heaviest rain through Monday will be across southern Texas due to that weak area of low pressure throughout the weekend into early in the week. Up to at least 5" could fall in some of these areas.
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Italy's Lake Garda shrinks to near-historic low amid drought
More from the Star Tribune: "Italy's worst drought in decades has reduced Lake Garda, the country's largest lake, to near its lowest level ever recorded, exposing swaths of previously underwater rocks and warming the water to temperatures that approach the average in the Caribbean Sea. Tourists flocking to the popular northern lake Friday for the start of Italy's key summer long weekend found a vastly different landscape than in past years. An expansive stretch of bleached rock extended far from the normal shoreline, ringing the southern Sirmione Peninsula with a yellow halo between the green hues of the water and the trees on the shore."
This new innovation boosts wind farm energy output yet costs nothing
More from Electrek: "Scientists have come up with a way to make wind farms more energy efficient, and it doesn't require new investment. Wind turbines are controlled as freestanding units and only maximize their own power production, but the wake of each wind turbine impacts each other. ... Howland led a team of scientists supported by MIT and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy who published a new study yesterday in the journal Nature Energy. The researchers found – based on real-world tests at a utility-scale wind farm in India – that a wind farm's energy output can be increased if individual turbines are optimized and the wind flow is modeled collectively."
One more clue to the Moon's origin
More from ETH Zurich: "Humankind has maintained an enduring fascination with the Moon. It was not until Galileo's time, however, that scientists really began study it. Over the course of nearly five centuries, researchers put forward numerous, much debated theories as to how the Moon was formed. Now, geochemists, cosmochemists, and petrologists at ETH Zurich shed new light on the Moon's origin story. In a study just published in the journal, Science Advances, the research team reports findings that show that the Moon inherited the indigenous noble gases of helium and neon from Earth's mantle. The discovery adds to the already strong constraints on the currently favoured "Giant Impact" theory that hypothesizes the Moon was formed by a massive collision between Earth and another celestial body."
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Thanks for checking in and have a great day! Don't forget to follow me on Twitter (@dkayserwx) and like me on Facebook (Meteorologist D.J. Kayser).
- D.J. Kayser
