The Fantastic Week Of Weather Continues – Highs Finally Back Around Average

Frost Advisory Tuesday Night

The National Weather Service has issued a Frost Advisory (lighter blue) for parts of east central Minnesota into western Wisconsin Tuesday Night. Temperatures are expected to get down into the low and mid 30s for lows by daybreak Wednesday.

Meteor In The Northeast

Credit: Burlington Airport

Those who were up late enough Monday Night (around 12:50 AM ET) in parts of the Northeast were lucky enough to catch a spectacular meteor streak across the sky! Three different security cameras at the Burlington, VT airport caught the fireball as it flew through the night sky. It was a very photogenic meteor, as dashboard cams from the Portland, ME and Plattsburgh, NY Police Department also caught the very bright meteor on camera.

Read more about the Monday Night meteor event in the Northeast from the American Meteor Society.

Wet Spring So Far… For Some

After a wet week last week, with four out of the five weekdays recording rainfall in the Twin Cities, I figured it was time to pull out the precipitation map for spring (since March 1st) so far. There have been a couple clear areas of wet weather this spring where precipitation is above average – one in southwest Minnesota (where some areas are a good 1-3″ above average according to the Midwest Regional Climate Center) and another across much of northeast Minnesota. In fact, the 5.20″ of rain in International Falls makes it the 13th wettest first 77 days of spring in history. Meanwhile, if you head out to northwest and west central Minnesota that’s where you find the driest weather over the past two and a half months. St. Cloud is 1.63″ below average for this time of spring.

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Minnesota Crop Update

The USDA and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture issued its weekly crop update Monday for the state of Minnesota. While most crops are ahead of schedule (versus the five year average) when it comes to planting, including corn, last week only provided an average of 2.3 days suitable for work in the fields. That was even less in southern Minnesota due to continued precipitation. There is also concern about how the frost/freeze last weekend may have affected development – potentially even causing damage. Read more from the USDA here.

The good news, according to University of Minnesota Extension corn specialist Jeff Coulter, is that while there may be injury to the corn from the frost, it shouldn’t have killed the corn: “The growing point on corn seedlings is currently about 0.75 inches below the soil surface and remains below the soil until the five to six leaf-collar stage. Therefore, frost prior to the five to six leaf-collar stage typically does not kill corn unless prolonged cold temperatures freeze the upper part of the soil where the growing point is located.“

Meanwhile, the grape crop at the Wollersheim Winery in Wisconsin took the worse hit they’ve had in about three decades. More from KARE-11: “Head winemaker Philippe Coquard says the temperature dropped to 27 degrees early Sunday and despite the heating equipment used to save the grape crop, the entire 32-acre vineyard at Prairie du Sac was damaged. Coquard says 75 percent of the red grapes have been lost and 25 percent of the white grapes.”

Dear Diary: there was this one week in mid-May, 2016 where I ran out of things to talk about. I remember that week fondly. Falling off of my weather-hammock (repeatedly). Painting graffiti on the Doppler. Posting cat videos and hair-care suggestions on my weather blog. I distinctly remember San Diego calling. They wanted their weather back.

Minnesota experiences some of the most extreme weather on the planet (what’s 130 degrees among friends?) so we can all be excused for gloating about a miraculous stretch of blue sky, fair weather cumulus and lukewarm breezes. Best of all: our high pressure hallucination lingers into the weekend as winds turn to the south, warming us to 80F by Sunday. Only in Minnesota is it even possible to go from flurries, frost and wind chill to 80F in the span of a week.

Studying the models I don’t see a drop of rain until late Monday, when a fizzling frontal passage may spark a few thunderstorms.

Until then the lights are on, the weather center is still open for business. But I’ll be swinging on my hammock, thanking the Good Lord for a break.

1980: Mt. St. Helens erupts. The smoke plume eventually rises to 80,000 feet, circling the earth in 19 days. Brilliant sunsets due to the smoke are seen over Minnesota for days afterward.

1933: Tornadoes hit McLeod and Mower counties.

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Average Temperatures & Precipitation for Minneapolis
May 18th

Average High: 70F (Record: 93F set in 2012)
Average Low: 50F (Record: 27F set in 1915)
Average Precipitation: 0.10″ (Record: 1.57″ set in 1892)
Average Snowfall: 0.0″ (Record: 2.0″ in 1915)
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Sunrise/Sunset Times for Minneapolis
May 18thSunrise: 5:40 AM
Sunset: 8:39 PM

*Length Of Day: 14 hours, 59 minutes and 2 seconds
*Daylight Gained Since Yesterday: ~2 mins & 8 secs

*Next Sunrise That Is Before 5:30 AM: June 1st (5:29 AM)
*Next Sunset That Is After 9 PM: June 13th (9:01 pm)

The previous wettest day in Vero Beach, FL history was January 21, 1957 when 8.82″ of rain fell.

Thanks for checking in and have a great Wednesday! Don’t forget you can follow me on Twitter (@dkayserwx) or on Facebook (Meteorologist D.J. Kayser)!

– D.J. Kayser