Near record temperatures Friday will have us falling back into that summer feeling.
Heat wave hits just as fall arrives: It's going to feel like 100 on Friday
Predicted high of 93 degrees has turned the calendar topsy-turvy.
September 22, 2017 at 1:13PM
A predicted high temperature of 93 degrees in the Twin Cities will make it the fourth-hottest day of the year. Toss in a lot of humidity and it will feel like 100 degrees as the dew point hits 70. That will feel downright tropical to some. For others, it will feel like a sweaty, hot mess that makes them long for sweater weather.
"[Friday] is the fall equinox so it's when astronomical fall starts. So it's ironic that it would be so hot and humid on the first day of fall," said Michelle Margraf, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Chanhassen. Meteorological fall began Sept. 1. "It will be a little shock to the system to have a temperature that warm tomorrow."
Only three other days this summer have been warmer. It hit 96 degrees on June 10 and July 15 and 94 degrees on July 6.
The predicted high of 93 degrees on Friday would be a tad short of the record 95 degrees set on that date in 1936 during the Dust Bowl, Margraf said.
The normal high for the date is 70 degrees.
And that could be as low as temperatures get Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, Margraf said. If so, that could be a record for the Twin Cities.
Two or more consecutive days with the low at 70 or above this late in the season would break the previous record set Sept. 16-18 in 1955, Margraf said. The normal low is 50, she added.
The mini-heat wave has schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul advising parents that students should wear lightweight clothing and bring water bottles. Windows will be opened Thursday night to ventilate the schools and fans will be turned on where air conditioning isn't available.
Hitting 90 degrees in September usually happens at least once every three years, Margraf said. Next week, temperatures should dip to more fall-like temperatures. And by Tuesday, an expected high of 66 degrees will be just a bit below normal, she said.
"It's weather whiplash," Margraf said.
The governor said it may be 2027 or 2028 by the time the market catches up to demand.
