Updraft: April 13, 2009 Archive

Parched

Posted at 7:00 AM on April 13, 2009 by Craig Edwards (1 Comments)

Hard to believe that while the Red River of the North remains above major flood stage, portions of central and east central Minnesota are on the dry side.

On both Saturday and Sunday afternoon the low dew points, in the upper teens, resulted in relative humidity readings of 15 to 20 percent in eastern Minnesota. The southeast winds gusting to 20 mph at times also added to the drying process. Until the spring green up takes hold, expect a high grassland fire threat to continue through much of the work week.

DNR fire danger. High threat area has expanded.

Clouds give way to sunshine for your Tuesday and Wednesday.

Cub fans, the home opener at Wrigley Field looks to be a little damp!

CE

Ice gives way

Posted at 3:56 PM on April 13, 2009 by Paul Huttner

Ice gives way to open water on St. Louis and Carson's Bays in Lake Minnetonka over the weekend.

It's nice to see open water again.

Lake Minnetonka near the Huttner Weather Lab was ice free on Sunday afternoon. White Bear went out on Saturday. We are about on schedule this year for ice out in metro area lakes. Most of Lake Minnetonka is now ice free and I am checking with the ice out gurus at the Freshwater Society in Navarre to see if we have recorded the official ice out for Minnetonka today.

**Update: My sources at the Freswater Society say there is still an ice sheet near Big Island. It must be on the west side as I can see the east side from near the Weather Lab. No official ice out yet as of 4pm on Monday.

Here comes spring and eventually summer!

PH

Drought creeps back

Posted at 4:22 PM on April 13, 2009 by Paul Huttner

U.S. Drought Monitor shows the Twin Cities and southeast Minnesota creeping back into moderate drought status.

Only in Minnesota.

As the Red River floods in Morehead, the Twin Cities slides into drought.

Things are looking a little scary on the fire danger and drought maps these days. The weather maps look pretty parched too.

After a long winter pining for some warm dry weather, we may be begging for rain around these parts in the next couple of weeks.

The lawn at the Huttner Weather Lab is powder dry.

How dry is the air these days? The dew point in the Twin Cities is 17 degrees. The dew point in Phoenix, Arizona? 37. The air is drier in Minnesota today than in the Arizona desert.

We'll enjoy a nice sunny week with temperatures warming through the 60's. A hopeful rain system may get cut off to our south Friday and Saturday. If we miss rain this weekend, the weather maps look dry through next week. We may even see our first 70 next week in the Twin Cities.

Enjoy the nice spring weather, and pray for a little rain this weekend.

PH