Updraft Category Archive: Arctic Sea Ice

Cooler front Tuesday; 80 returns by Sunday? Spectacular fall color photos

Posted at 5:30 PM on September 24, 2012 by Paul Huttner
Filed under: Arctic Sea Ice, Fall color

77F Balmy high temp at MSP Monday

68F average high at MSP Monday

82F in Morris & Appleton Monday

+1.8F temps vs. average so far at MSP in September

16th straight month of above average temps in the metro!

May 2011 - last cooler than average month at MSP Airport (-0.9F)

Cool front Tuesday - temps 10 degrees cooler the rest of this week

80F returns to the metro as early as Sunday and into next week?

Spectacular fall color shots along the Mississippi - more images below

Mississippi River color burst
Image Credit: Bill Stein
(click to enlarge)

ClimateCast: Snapshot comparing Arctic Sea ice from September 1979 to September 2012 (see images below)

Source: Twin Cities NWS

Cooler front pushes south:

It's safe to say we "enjoyed" a stunning Monday with 77 in the metro and numerous 80+ degree temps in western Minnesota. You have to admit, these are the days that make many of us endure tough winters and hot muggy & buggy summers.

Source: University of Utah MesoWest data

"Ideal human comfort" is the term that comes to mind with sunshine, temps in the upper 70s and desert dry dew points in the 30s. This is why people flock to Arizona in November...and why San Diego is packed with millions of people living on top of each other. (Okay...maybe the unbelievable beaches are a draw too.)

Simply put, Monday was tough to beat...and maybe the best single weather day of 2012?

Tuesday's cool front will be noticeable, dropping temps about 10 degrees for the rest of the week.

Source: NOAA

It's interesting to note that Tuesday's "cold front" is what I would call another "average front" in Minnesota...dropping temps to only near average.

What is "average" in the metro this week? 67/48.

Warmth returns this weekend:

As has been the case so often in Minnesota since May 2011, the cooler weather won't last.

This month is the 16th consecutive warmer than average month in Minnesota. We're running about +6 degrees in the metro during the past 16 months. Yes... it's truly like we've been living in an Omaha or Lincoln, Nebraska climate the past year. Maybe it's rubbing off...is that why the Gopher football team improving so much?

A ridge of high pressure will amplify this weekend over the upper Midwest. That will allow milder southerly breezes to blow again, and temps will respond into the 70s once again.

The GFS is hinting now for a couple of runs that the ridge may build even more early next week. This could boost temps back into the 80s for southern Minnesota once again.

Stay tuned...summer-like weather may have another run here early next week.

ClimatCast: Arctic Sea Ice...then and now

I've talked about the recent Arctic Sea ice record low a few different ways, but here's one great way to visualize the dramatic differences in the volume of ASI over the past 30+ years.

Check out the snapshots below from September 1979 and September 2012.

Source: NOAA/Cryosphere Today

Remarkable.

You can see it's a completely different picture at the top of the world these days than in 1979, and why so many scientists are so concerned about the changes.

What we don't know may be the biggest issue. How does less Arctic ice and warmer oceans change the course of the Polar Jet Stream and the way it delivers weather to the northern hemisphere? How should the computer forecast models deal with this newly changed landscape and air mass "source region?"

We're literally in uncharted waters here.

Colors exploding now
Source: MN DNR

Fall color explosion: Mississippi putting on a spectacular show!

Minnesotans like to travel far and wide to see the best fall color shows. Here's one that's literally right in the metro backyard.

Take a look at these photos captured by St. Paul resident Bill Stein Monday along the Mississippi River. The weekend chill has made the colors explode.

These pictures are worth way more than any thousand words I could type, so I'll just stop typing.

Image Credit: Bill Stein

Image Credit: Bill Stein

PH

Bigger than Texas: Size of new Arctic Sea ice record; MN weather roller coaster

Posted at 6:52 PM on September 19, 2012 by Paul Huttner
Filed under: Arctic Sea Ice, Climate change

76F High temps at MSP Airport Wednesday (at 1:25pm)

45F forecast low in many metro areas Thursday morning

39 mph Peak wind gust at MSP Airport Wednesday

Pea sized hail in Duluth Wednesday

#1 International Falls America's "most changeable city" for overnight low temps in 2011? - Details below

1.32 million sq miles New record low Arctic Sea ice coverage reached Sunday

Roughly 50% of average ice cover from 1979-2000

300,000 sq miles - Size of ice free zone in the Arctic Ocean compared to previous record low in 2007.

286,000 sq miles - Size of Texas

Source: NASA

NASA: New Arctic Sea Ice record low bests previous record by the size of Texas

Here's another twist from NASA on the story I've been covering this year on the new record low coverage in Arctic Sea ice.

The frozen cap of the Arctic Ocean appears to have reached its annual summertime minimum extent and broken a new record low on Sept. 16, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has reported. Analysis of satellite data by NASA and the NASA-supported NSIDC at the University of Colorado in Boulder showed that the sea ice extent shrunk to 1.32 million square miles (3.41 million square kilometers).

The new record minimum measures almost 300,000 square miles less than the previous lowest extent in the satellite record, set in mid-September 2007, of 1.61 million square miles (4.17 million square kilometers). For comparison, the state of Texas measures around 268,600 square miles.

Arctic sea ice cover naturally grows during the dark Arctic winters and retreats when the sun re-appears in the spring. But the sea ice minimum summertime extent, which is normally reached in September, has been decreasing over the last three decades as Arctic ocean and air temperatures have increased. This year's minimum extent is approximately half the size of the average extent from 1979 to 2000. This year's minimum extent also marks the first time Arctic sea ice has dipped below 4 million square kilometers.

"Climate models have predicted a retreat of the Arctic sea ice; but the actual retreat has proven to be much more rapid than the predictions," said Claire Parkinson, a climate scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "There continues to be considerable inter-annual variability in the sea ice cover, but the long-term retreat is quite apparent."

This year, a powerful cyclone formed off the coast of Alaska and moved on Aug. 5 to the center of the Arctic Ocean, where it churned the weakened ice cover for several days. The storm cut off a large section of sea ice north of the Chukchi Sea and pushed it south to warmer waters that made it melt entirely. It also broke vast extensions of ice into smaller pieces more likely to melt.

"The storm definitely seems to have played a role in this year's unusually large retreat of the ice", Parkinson said. "But that exact same storm, had it occurred decades ago when the ice was thicker and more extensive, likely wouldn't have had as prominent an impact, because the ice wasn't as vulnerable then as it is now."

In other words, some of the projected climate changes in the IPCC Reports are happening much faster than previously projected. An ice free Arctic Sea by 2050 was reviled as "panic" by some climate change critics. Now some are saying we could see an ice free Arctic in summer by 2025...or even as early as 2015.

We're literally in uncharted waters here. We just don't know what the climate implications of an ice free Arctic Ocean will be in future years.

September: Minnesota's favorite weather "roller coaster"

You can't please all the people all of the time...but you can come pretty close in Minnesota in September.

Want summer? How about 95F in the metro and 99F in Madison, MN on September 11th?

Longing for that fall or winter feeling? Take 20F in International Falls Tuesday morning.

Our weather roller coaster continues this week. After a mild (and very brief) summery 76F at MSP Airport at 1:25pm Wednesday...temps crashed behind the next cold front.

Source: NOAA

We wake to temps a full 30+ degrees colder Thursday morning with 30s up north and 40 south.

Minnesota: Weather "change" capitol of the USA?

We've all heard the narrative that Minnesota is one of the most "changeable" weather places on earth.

There's some truth to that...and a new look at just how changeable various U.S. cities are puts Minnesota on top in some categories.

Forecast Advisor crunched the numbers for "changeable" USA weather cities for 2011. The study ranked a total of 787 cities.

International Falls came in at #1 as the most changeable location for overnight low temps from day to day. Hibbing was #3, Park Rapids #17 and Baudette #20.

Source: Forecast Advisor

As for day to day changes in precip, Duluth came in at #3 and Grand Marais was #16.

The Twin Cities ranked #275 for high temps, #116 for low temps & #72 for precip variability.

As you would expect, places like Arizona & California showed the least day to day change with many New England and Midwest locations showing the highest variability.

My dad used to say our frequent weather changes "build character." If that's true, Minnesotans must have plenty of excess "character" to give the rest of the nation.

PH

September chill; Arctic Sea Ice bottoms out; increasing again

Posted at 8:29 AM on September 18, 2012 by Paul Huttner
Filed under: Arctic Sea Ice

20F this morning at Embarrass & International Falls

21F at Big Fork

22F at Hibbing

37F at Lakeville in the south metro

43F at MSP Airport this morning

2.23 million sq km - coverage of Arctic Sea Ice Saturday

2.27 million sq km and growing... Arctic Sea Ice Monday

Source: Twin Cities NWS

September's Big Chill:

20 degrees.

Mark it down as the coldest temp so far in Minnesota this fall.

Both International Falls and Embarrass hit 20F this morning, thanks to clear skies and light winds in northern Minnesota.

REGIONAL TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION TABLE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DULUTH MN
718 AM CDT TUE SEP 18 2012

INL : INTERNATIONAL FALLS : 56 / 20 / T
EMBM5: EMBARRASS..............: DH0600/ 51 / 20 / 0.00

Several other northern & central Minnesota locations dipped to near or below freezing.

BRD : BRAINERD : 59 / 33 / T
GNA : GRAND MARAIS : 60 / 39 / 0.00
HIB : HIBBING : 56 / 22 / T
TWM : TWO HARBORS : 57 / 34 / M
BFW : SILVER BAY : 57 / 28 / M
CKC : GRAND MARAIS AIRPORT : 54 / 30 / M
ELO : ELY : 55 / 30 / M
ORB : ORR : 54 / 25 / M
CQM : COOK : 54 / 25 / M
CDD : CRANE LAKE : 55 / 23 / M
EVM : EVELETH : 54 / 32 / M
FOZ : BIGFORK : 57 / 21 / M
GPZ : GRAND RAPIDS : 55 / 28 / M

As is usually the case, temps this morning were largely cloud dependent.

Source: College of Du Page Weather Lab

The immediate metro escaped frost, and it looks like the next chance of frost will come this weekend.

Source: Twin Cities NWS

Arctic Sea Ice bottoms out:

We've reported the record low of Arctic Sea Ice in the past few weeks.

It looks like ice coverage finally bottomed out on Saturday...and new ice is now beginning to form in the Arctic Ocean.

Source: http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/

The record low of 2.23 million sq km coverage is by far the lowest on record. In fact, it's a full 5 million sq km below the 1979-2000 average annual minimum. That's just 32% of the average!

Source: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

Here's a great way to visualize the disappearance of sea ice this year from NOAA.

The sea ice in the Arctic Ocean dropped below the previous all-time record set in 2007. This year also marks the first time that there has been less than 4 million square kilometers (1.54 million square miles) of sea ice since satellite observations began in 1979. This animation shows the 2012 time-series of ice extent using sea ice concentration data from the DMSP SSMI/S satellite sensor. The black area represents the daily average (median) sea ice extent over the 1979-2000 time period. Layered over top of that are the daily satellite measurements from January 1 -- September 14, 2012. A rapid melt begins in July, whereby the 2012 ice extents fall far below the historical average. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (www.nsidc.org) will confirm the final minimum ice extent data and area once the melt stabilizes, usually in mid-September.

Here's another great animation of the last 30 days from the University of Illinois' Cryosphere Today. Notice how ASI bottoms out, and how snow cover appears in Siberia and northwest Canada's Yukon Territory.

We'll be keeping an eye on expanding snow cover in the Arctic in the next month here at the Weather Lab as we begin to refine our seasonal forecast for the winter of 2012 - '13.

Stay tuned...

PH

Arctic Sea Ice reaches yet another record low; Why it matters to Minnesota & USA

Posted at 8:58 AM on September 5, 2012 by Paul Huttner (12 Comments)
Filed under: Arctic Sea Ice

4.2 million square kilometers - record low Arctic Sea Ice (ASI) coverage on August 24th

3.6 million sq km - latest (and new) low in ASI coverage this week

Half a million sq km melted in the past 2 weeks

75% of all ASI volume has disappeared in the past 20 years

50% higher than predicted - rate of ASI melting

Source: NOAA/National Snow & Ice Data Center

Arctic Sea Ice: Record melt in 2012

We've already reported on the new record low in Arctic Sea Ice coverage observed by NOAA on August 24th. The melting has continued the past 2 weeks, and now a new, new low has been achieved in the Arctic.

As of August 24th just 4.2 million square kilometers of ice coverage was observed by satellite in the Arctic Ocean at the top of the world. This week that number is closer to 3.5 million sq km...and still falling.

What's even more troubling may be the volume of ice that's disappearing. A full 75% of the volume of ASI has vanished in the past 20 years. Just 25% of that ice volume remains today.

Some more details from Renew Economy.

And it's not just the extent of the ice. It's now much thinner: new figures of modeled data from PIOMAS show the volume on 25 August was around 3,600 cubic kilometers. This is just one-quarter of the volume twenty years ago. This fits with data from the first purpose-built satellite launched to study the thickness of the Earth's polar caps showing that the rate of Arctic summer sea ice loss is 50 per cent higher than predicted.

As the ice becomes thinner and vulnerable to break-up from more severe Arctic storms, there are predictions of a summer Arctic Ocean free of sea-ice as early as 2015-16. A week ago ReNew Economy reported on the "big call" of the Cambridge Professor and Arctic expert Peter Wadhams who predicts Arctic summer sea ice "all gone by 2015", except perhaps for a small multi-year remnant.

Other Arctic specialists are now saying we will see an ice-free Arctic in summer within a decade or so. Some, relying on global generalised climate models which have a poor record for modelling and projecting Arctic sea-ice loss, are sticking to a 2030-2040 projection, but lament that "We just don't know exactly why this (sea-ice loss) is moving so fast".

Credit: Ted Scambos, NSIDC

Why it matters: The "Arctic Refrigerator" is broken

The fact that ASI is disappearing at a more rapid rate than IPCC and other projections has consequences.

-Less ice in the Arctic means summer sunlight is absorbed by a warmer Arctic Ocean.

-A warmer Arctic Ocean means air masses coming south into the USA and across the Northern Hemisphere are not as cold as in years past. That in turn means hotter summers and may mean fewer rain producing "temperature contrasts"...weaker cold fronts with less rain which may lead to bigger droughts such as the Drought of 2012.

-Cold fronts that used to drop temperatures below average are now..."normal fronts."

-A warmer Arctic Ocean warms waters around Greenland, which leads to faster melting of the largest land based ice sheet in the northern Hemisphere. As Greenland sees record ice melt, sea levels rise accordingly.

-A warmer arctic may fuel more extreme weather in the USA and Europe.

The "Lake Effect" analogy:

One way to think about the impact of less ASI is to think of the "lake effect" you feel near Lake Superior and other Great Lakes in summer. As breezes blow over the much colder waters, temperatures fall over otherwise warm land near the lakes.

Credit: The Weather Doctor

The air above the chilly water is cooled from below...like the air pouring out of your freezer when you open the door on a hot day.

One way to think of the vast Arctic Ocean is like a huge saltwater "Great Lake."

Source: NOAA/National Snow & Ice Data Center

Less Arctic Sea ice means sunlight warms the Arctic Ocean more efficiently. As air masses ride over now warmer the Arctic Ocean water instead of ice, the do not cool as much. The "lake effect" is reduced...and the planet's ability to cool off from spring to fall is also reduced.

The air masses that do come south from the Canadian Arctic into Minnesota and the USA just don't pack the punch they once did. That can mean hotter summers like 2012, the 3rd hottest summer on record in Minnesota. It may also be one reason that 3 of the 6 hottest summers in Minnesota have occurred in the past 6 years.

Source: Twin Cities NWS

Weaker cool fronts may also produce less precipitation. The result can be growing areas of drought.

We are just staring to connect the dots on how climate is affected by shrinking ice cover in the Arctic. The story is unfolding faster than many climate scientists had anticipated, and we're seeing, and feeling the effects right before our eyes in our lifetime.

PH

What climate change looks like: Greenland record heat & "glacial" floods

Posted at 5:25 PM on July 23, 2012 by Paul Huttner
Filed under: Arctic Sea Ice, Climate change

96F high temps at MSP Airport Monday at 2:50pm

1st 90 degree day in 6 days (94F last Tuesday July 17th)

23rd day of 90+ heat so far in 2012

13 for 23 13 days so far in July at or above 90 degrees

80s likely most of the rest of this week

Scattered T-Storms growing rain & thunder chances this week

Fresh air Friday - cooler & much less humid by Friday & Saturday

"Steamy Monday:"

Monday certainly delivered on advertised temps above 90 degrees in the metro. The high of 96 degrees at MSP Airport was the hottest in a week, but well short of the record of 105 set back in 1934.

Temps above 90 blanketed the metro Monday afternoon.

Source: WxUnderground

That may be the last of the 90s for the Twin Cities this week. We'll make a run at 90 again Tuesday, before a gathering low pressure system deepens and moves into Minnesota from the west.

The system will trigger occasional showers & T-Storms through Wednesday. The best chance for heavy storms appears to be from "nocturnal" storms during the overnight and early morning hours...but a few daytime storms can't be ruled out.

The increased cloud cover and debris clouds should limit high to the upper 80s for most of the rest of this week.

The latest model solutions seem to favor the most rain in a zone between the Twin Cities Brainerd and Duluth this week. Some (lucky) areas could see 1" to 2"+ rainfall by Thursday.

http://wxcaster.com/gis-radar-overlays.php3?STATIONID=MPX

"Fresh Air Friday" ahead this week:

Last week I talked about a potential pattern shift that could bring some cooler & drier Canadian air to Minnesota late this week. It looks like our "Fresh Air Friday" is still on track.

A cooler northwest flow should deliver some refreshing Canadian air into Minnesota Friday & Saturday.

Highs may top out near 80 in the metro Friday, and I wouldn't be shocked to see (especially north) metro locations top out in the upper 70s Friday & Saturday. Overnight lows should be in the low 60s...with some upper 50s likely in the north metro suburbs Friday & Saturday morning.

Source: NOAA/Iowa State University

Dew points should drop into the comfy 50s. This will truly be an opportunity to shut off overworked AC units and open the windows for a fresh cooling breeze at night this weekend.

Greenland "heat" records & "glacial flooding"

If you've ever wondered what climate change looks like, this may be one answer.

Some of Greenland's high glaciers set temperature record in the past week. The resulting melt water and runoff flooded the valleys below, taking out bridges and tractors along the way.

Check out the photos and video.

WxUnderground's Jeff Masters expands on the details.

Record heat leads to major flooding in Greenland

The record heat has triggered significant melting of Greenland's Ice Sheet. According to the Arctic Sea Ice Blog, on July 11, glacier melt water from the Russell Glacier flooded the Watson River, smashing two bridges connecting the north and south of Kangerlussuaq (Sønder Strømfjord), a small settlement in southwestern Greenland. The flow rate of 3.5 million liters/sec was almost double the previous record flow rate.

The coldest place in Greenland, and often the entire Northern Hemisphere, is commonly the Summit Station. Located at the top of the Greenland Ice Sheet, 10,552 feet (3207 meters) above sea level, and 415 miles (670 km) north of the Arctic Circle, Summit rarely sees temperatures that rise above the freezing mark. In the 12-year span 2000 - 2011, Summit temperatures rose above freezing only four times, according to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera. But remarkably, over the past week, temperatures at Summit have eclipsed the freezing mark on five days, including four days in a row from July 11 - 14.

In addition, NOAA and the University of Illinois Cryosphere Today tells us that Arctic Sea Ice reached the lowest level ever recorded as of July 22nd.

Source: University of Illinois Cryosphere Today

4th warmest June marks 328th consecutive "above average" month globally

Do you have kids under 27 years old? We'll they've never experienced a "cooler than average" month globally in their lifetime.

June marks the 328th consecutive month of global temps warmer than the 20th century average. The last "colder than average" month was February of 1985.

The odds of that happening? We'll it's more than there are stars in the universe according to an excellent piece by Bill McKibbon in Rolling Stone.

If the pictures of those towering wildfires in Colorado haven't convinced you, or the size of your AC bill this summer, here are some hard numbers about climate change: June broke or tied 3,215 high-temperature records across the United States. That followed the warmest May on record for the Northern Hemisphere - the 327th consecutive month in which the temperature of the entire globe exceeded the 20th-century average, the odds of which occurring by simple chance were 3.7 x 10-99, a number considerably larger than the number of stars in the universe.

PH

Gusty wet Tuesday; Pagami Fire soaker; Arctic Sea ice minimum

Posted at 8:25 AM on September 20, 2011 by Paul Huttner
Filed under: Arctic Sea Ice

30+ mph gusts today in much of Minnesota

.95" NAM model output rainfall for Ely & Pagami Creek Fire

.22" NAM output for MSP

75 degrees - high temp Monday at MSP

50s by Wednesday!

60s return for the weekend.

Cold front!

A cold front is slicing through Minnesota today. Look for bands of showers, gusty winds and scattered rainfall.

More rain north:

The heaviest, steadiest rain will fall in the northern half of Minnesota. Model output is running around an inch for the Ely area...including the Pagami Creek Fire zone.

This will be a welcome rain to help douse the fire, and may be a turning point in the overall battle for firefighters.

Gusty winds too:

Wind advisories and high wind warnings have been pared back a bit and shifted west today, but gusty winds will still be the rule in Minnesota. The cold front will drop temps by about 20 degrees Wednesday compared to Monday's balmy highs in the mid 70s to near 80 degrees.

Arctic Sea Ice near record lows in 2011:

Satellite measurements indicate that ice cover in the Arctic Ocean came very close to an all time record low in 2011. The ice melt peaked on September 9th, and ice cover is gradually growing again as we head toward the winter freeze up.

The details form the National Snow and Ice Data Center:

September 15, 2011

Arctic sea ice at minimum extent

"Arctic sea ice appears to have reached its lowest extent for the year. The minimum ice extent was the second lowest in the satellite record, after 2007, and continues the decadal trend of rapidly decreasing summer sea ice.

The last five years (2007 to 2011) have been the five lowest extents in the continuous satellite record, which extends back to 1979. While the record low year of 2007 was marked by a combination of weather conditions that favored ice loss (including clearer skies, favorable wind patterns, and warm temperatures), this year has shown more typical weather patterns but continued warmth over the Arctic. This supports the idea that the Arctic sea ice cover is continuing to thin. Models and remote sensing data also indicate this is the case. A large area of low concentration ice in the East Siberian Sea, visible in NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery, suggests that the ice cover this year is particularly thin and dispersed this year."

PH

Arctic sea ice nears record low

Posted at 4:26 PM on September 7, 2011 by Paul Huttner (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arctic Sea Ice

It's been a hot summer in North America and the northern Hemisphere, and it looks like the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is feeling the heat.

Since 1979 satellites have tracked the amount of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. As you would expect, some of the ice melts every summer. The annual "sea ice minimum" usually occurs in early to mid-September.

This week it appears the coverage of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is at or near the all-time record low set in 2007.

The details form the national Snow and Ice Data Center.

Arctic sea ice near record lows

"Arctic sea ice extent averaged for August 2011 reached the second lowest level for the month in the 1979 to 2011 satellite record. Both the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea route appear to be open. Throughout August, sea ice extent tracked near the record lows of 2007, underscoring the continued decline in Arctic ice cover.

Higher-resolution Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) data processed by the University of Bremen showed ice extent on September 5 as falling below the same date in 2007."

PH

Arctic Sea Ice: 2nd lowest on record

Posted at 8:37 AM on September 8, 2010 by Paul Huttner
Filed under: Arctic Sea Ice, Flooding

Fall's first salvo in Minnesota means that the Arctic Ocean will soon start freezing up again.

But mid September is also the time when the summer of melting ice in the Arctic reaches its peak. The annual Arctic Sea ice "minimum" usually occurs in mid-September.

A slightly cooler Arctic Summer in 2009 temporarily stemmed the tide of record summer ice melt recent years. But it appears the big melt is back in 2010.

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Arctic Sea ice was at the second lowest level on record in August. This is about 240,000 square miles below the average since 1979. That's an area roughly the size of Texas.

2010 continues the long term trend of greater melt of Arctic Sea ice over the past decades.

NSIDC also reports that both the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route are largely ice free and open for possible circumnavigation of the Arctic Sea.

Texas Flood:

It's one of my son's favorite Stevie Ray Vaughn songs, and it's also a weather reality in progress today.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine are swirling over Texas dumping several inches of rain along its path.

Swift water rescues are in progress in parts of Texas today.

Coolest morning in 4 months:

The mercury dipped to 47 in the metro this morning. This marks the coolest temperature in nearly 4 months in the Twin Cities. The last time the temperature was this cool was on May 15th, when the temperature dropped to 45 degrees.

Sunny today; rain returns tomorrow:

Our cool start today will give way to a sunny and milder afternoon. Look for temperatures to approach 70 in southern Minnesota today.

The next weather system is on the way for Thursday. A weak push of moisture will bring a few showers Thursday AM & midday. After a break, a stronger front will push a new batch of rain our way Friday.

(click for bigger image)

Friday's front should sail through Minnesota by early Saturday morning, setting us up for a sunnier and warmer weekend. Look for highs in the 70s this weekend. Averages for the metro by Saturday are 73/53.

Enjoy the sun today!

PH