Updraft: May 13, 2010 Archive

Sunnier forecast

Posted at 8:30 AM on May 13, 2010 by Paul Huttner
Filed under: Rainfall, Springtime

Your lawn or farm field may be happy we banked some decent rain in about a week. It's about to get a whole lot sunnier around here.

A fast moving jet stream has sent a series of low pressure systems swirling through the Upper Midwest this month. In the Twin Cities, 10 of the past 11 days have featured at least a trace of rain. Rainfall is running above average this month in many southern Minnesota locations.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL CLIMATOLOGICAL DATA (WS FORM: F-6)

STATION: TWIN CITIES MN
MONTH: MAY
YEAR: 2010
LATITUDE: 44 52 N
LONGITUDE: 93 13 W

DY MAX MIN WTR

1 64 49 0.00
2 64 48 0.00
3 57 46 0.05
4 79 41 T
5 55 47 T
6 54 41 0.04
7 48 34 0.55
8 52 34 T
9 58 32 0.00
10 58 44 0.19
11 46 41 0.47
12 51 42 0.04

PRELIMINARY LOCAL CLIMATOLOGICAL DATA (WS FORM: F-6) , PAGE 2

STATION: TWIN CITIES MN
MONTH: MAY
YEAR: 2010
LATITUDE: 44 52 N
LONGITUDE: 93 13 W

[TEMPERATURE DATA] [PRECIPITATION DATA]

AVERAGE MONTHLY: 49.4 TOTAL FOR MONTH: 1.34
DPTR FM NORMAL: -6.5 DPTR FM NORMAL: 0.24
HIGHEST: 79 ON 4 GRTST 24HR 0.66 ON 10-11
LOWEST: 32 ON 9

Last night's rain and thunder favored the west metro. Here are some local rainfall reports.

MSP Aiprort .25"
Stillwater .32"
Chanhassen .44"
Forest Lake .49"
Long Lake .49"
Crystal .53"
Buffalo .56"

Twin Cities NWS storm total rainfall estimates.

Arrowhead drought hangs tough:

Today's latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows severe drought hanging tough in northeast Minnesota and much of northern Wisconsin. Wetter weather is keeping the drought from expanding in areas south and west.

I have observed wet soils and high pond and lake levels near the weather lab in the west metro. There is standing water in many areas around the west metro in ditches and low spots that have been dry for the past few springs.

Drier and warmer pattern ahead:

As the jet stream shifts north into southern Canada over the next 10 days, drier and much warmer weather will take hold over the Upper Midwest. Temperatures should push 70 by the weekend, and it appears 70s and even 80s are ahead in the coming 10 days.

This should help boost crop development in Minnesota to levels well ahead of average by late May.

Enjoy the warm up as spring and summer like temperatures move in over the next few days.

PH

Forecast: May mosquito boom

Posted at 5:00 PM on May 13, 2010 by Paul Huttner (1 Comments)
Filed under: Rainfall, Springtime

You knew they would get here sooner or later. This year, it looks like you'd better brush up on your mosquito swatting move sooner.

This spring's weather pattern is setting up just right for an early onslaught of what some not so lovingly call our Minnesota state bird, the mosquito.

Several factors have lined up to create what could be an early boom in mosquito numbers this year.

-Unseasonably warm weather in March and April

-A wet start to May has led to ample rainfall and plenty of standing water.

-A pattern change to much warmer weather in the next two weeks will likely lead to a large and early mosquito hatch.

Usually we can get through the Memorial Day holiday with limited numbers of mosquitoes in these parts. The real boom in mosquito numbers usually comes in early June and lasts about a month until numbers begin to fall in mid to late summer.

This year everything from ice out to lilac blooms are occurring 2 to 3 weeks earlier than average. With the weather patterns the way they are, it's a good bet to assume we'll see a healthy crop of mosquitoes in late May this year, as opposed to early June.

The Twin Cities Metropolitan Mosquito Control District has a cool interactive tracker with records of larva activity and treatments for your neighborhood. You can keep track of breeding sites and how they are being treated.

Metropolitan Mosquito Control District map shows breeding areas
(orange outlines) in the Minnetonka area.

It pays to use bug spray these days with so many mosquito borne illness.

I hope you'll really enjoy the "bug free" warm up over the next week to 10 days. It won't be long until our least favorite summer visitor fills the sky on summery evenings.

PH

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