Updraft: June 23, 2009 Archive

Forecast contest winner

Posted at 8:58 AM on June 23, 2009 by Paul Huttner

Original upper air forecast for Monday June 22nd from Monday June 8th.

Actual upper air map at 7pm on Monday June 22nd.

We have a winner!

Actually, we have two winners. One is an MPR listener that won the forecast contest. Another winner is the GFS forecast model and the prediction two weeks in advance of a Midwest heat wave. I guess that makes us all winners.

We'll get to the winner in a moment, but first take a look at the two images above. The top image is the 500mb (18,000 foot level) upper air map I posted on June 8th. The bottom image is the actual upper air map from yesterday.

What do you see?

Here's what I see. The GFS did a very good job of nailing the idea of a big ridge of high pressure in the central U.S. Monday. The actual ridge axis was a little east of the forecast, and the magnitude was not quite as high but the overall notion was good. That's why the heat wave verified.

The model also did pretty well with the notion of the western trough over the northern Rockies and west coast. The model missed the magnitude of the eastern trough and cutoff low over the east coast. The resulting weather was cooler and wetter than what would have been expected in the original forecast. Overall the GFS did a very good job of predicting the major heat trend two weeks in advance this time.

Okay now for the winner!

The official high temperature yesterday at Twin Cities International Airport was 94 degrees. Here's the climate data from the NWS below.

CLIMATE REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHANHASSEN MN
153 AM CDT TUE JUN 23 2009

THE TWIN CITIES MN CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR JUNE 22 2009...

TEMPERATURE (F)
YESTERDAY
MAXIMUM 94
MINIMUM 72
AVERAGE 83

Many of you had excellent guesses! Here are some of the best guesses form the original blog post.

A: The ECMWF is indicating the same general pattern, but it only goes out to the 18th. GFS seems to have, surprisingly, good run-to-run consistency showing the ridge building into central CONUS. So, I will say high temp at MSP June 22nd will be 91. I'll go ahead and also say ORD will have a high of 97, and down here in SE IL, a muggy high of 95.
Posted by spencerp | June 8, 2009 4:40 PM

I vote 92 for hi temp on June 22
Posted by Chris Ruser | June 9, 2009 7:24 AM

I am going with 93 -- and I could not be happier. I love hot weather.
Posted by Susan | June 9, 2009 2:24 PM

My guess A. & June 22 will be 93 degrees. Thank you for this very interesting and fun weather prediction.
Posted by Bobbie Graham

Thanks, Jen. I appreciate your well wishes. Because of my track record, I'm going to "predict" in a way that may well get us what we want.
I'll predict (going with my camping theory) that it will be hot and muggy. Down right unbearably muggy with thurnderstorms which unlike Miami do not cool us down but like Arkansas simply mock you with the steam rising from the asphalt and roofs. It will be 95 and unbearable.
Posted by kathie | June 12, 2009 8:03 PM
Great guesses all!

Our winner nailed it to the degree, guessing the exact high temperature yesterday back on June 9th. Congratulations to Jacob. His post is below.

I'm guessing a high of 94 degrees and a dew point of 66. A hot and muggy day!
Posted by Jacob | June 9, 2009 8:31 PM

Not only did Jacob nail the high temperature, but the dew point yesterday hovered around 66 in the metro most of the day!

Congratulations Jacob! Here is what you've won.

An atomic clock with wireless outdoor temperature from La Crosse Technology. The unit is similar to these units on the La Crosse Technology site.

Jaocb, send me an email to phuttner@mpr.org with your adress and I'll ship the clock to you this week. Nice work and enjoy the clock Jacob.

Thanks for the great comments everybody!

Look for day 2 of our heat wave to peak today. We may see a high between 95 and 98 later today. There is a slight risk few a few severe thunderstorms late today and this evening.

PH

Dew Point Driven Heat Index Values in June Somewhat Rare

Posted at 9:50 AM on June 23, 2009 by Mark Seeley

It has been sometime since southern Minnesota has seen high Heat Index values in June driven by extreme dew points. Late June of 1996 brought a brief heat spell that was driven by high dew points. The Heat Index (HI) rose above 100 F in several places back then.

To keep track of dew point measurements and trends I would recommend checking the University of Illinois web site

Be careful out there, and take plenty of liquid today.

Heat and severe threat fades tonight

Posted at 4:44 PM on June 23, 2009 by Paul Huttner

The Twin Cities just can't buy a break when it comes to rainfall.

The metro is bracketed by severe thunderstorm watch boxes to the north and south today. And it looks like that's where the severe weather and beneficial soaking rains will stay.

At least the clouds and cool front sliding through tonight will break the 2 day heat wave. For the second day in a row, we've managed to hit 94 degrees in the metro. This is the 4th day of 90 degree heat this year. We see 13 days of 90 or hotter in an average year.

Look for an improving weather picture as we head through the rest of the week. The cool front coming through the metro will stall Wednesday in northern Iowa. Waves rippling along the front will trigger a round or two of thunderstorms that could run along the I-90 corridor Wednesday. Thursday looks dry and mild. More heat may build north Friday, giving us another shot at 90 degrees in the metro. The next cold front due in Friday night may trigger another round of severe storms.

We started the month of June over 7 degrees below average. The recent hot spell has us playing catch up in a big way. We are now within 2 degrees of average temperature for the month. The forecast for the rest of June looks like we may end the month very close to average.

We've gone from a high of 52 degrees in the metro on June 6th, to 94 degrees the past two days. Welcome to the land of weather extremes. Welcome to Minnesota.

PH