The IR Satellite from Thursday showed newly developed Tropical Storm Ida centered near Jamaica in the Caribbean. Areas of heavy rains, flooding and the potential of mudslides will continue as Ida lifts NW over through the end of the week.

According to NOAA's NHC, Ida if forecast to become a Hurricane this weekend as it enters the Gulf. Interestingly, it could become a category 2 storm prior to landfall near the Louisiana Coast late Sunday

One of the biggest concerns will be heavy rainfall along the coast and places inland. The heaviest rains will be near the coast with significant flash flooding possible, but there will also be areas of heavy rain farther inland, where several inches of rain can't be ruled out through early next week.

The Greenwood Fire in Northern Minnesota has burned more than 20,000 acres in the Superior National Forest. Due to several wildfire concerns, no more permits into the BWCA have been allowed. Hopefully rain chances will help fire fighting efforts over the coming days.

The footprint of the Greenwood fire is nearly 26,000 acres in size, which had explosive fire growth earlier this week due to strong southerly winds. Here's the latest weather information about the weather conditions: "Cloud cover increased across the region today, resulting in cooler temperatures and humidity trending wetter compared to Wednesday. Scattered showers also pushed east across northeastern Minnesota, with light rainfall falling over the fire. Easterly winds will increase tonight into Friday as an area of low pressure approaches from the west. Friday will be a cool, wet, and breezy, with periods of rain forecast during the day and through the evening. Another good chance of precipitation arrives Saturday afternoon through Saturday night, before we dry out Sunday and Monday."

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Despite recent rains, much of Minnesota is in a drought with Exceptional Drought across parts of of Minnesota from near International Falls to Upper & Lower Red Lake and near Fargo, ND. This is where precipitation deficits are near -7.00" to -8.50" below average since January 1st

Here's how much rain has fallen across the region so far this month (through the 24th). Some spots have picked up much needed with several inches of rain being reported across the southern half of the state and into central Wisconsin.

We're not quite done with heavy rain potential across parts of the state with some 2" to 4" tallies possible, including the Twin Cities.

Here's the simulated radar through midday Saturday, which shows scattered showers and storms in place through early Friday morning. There appears to be a break in the rains before another round arrives PM Saturday.

Scattered showers and storms will be possible across the region on Friday, some of which could be strong to severe with locally heavy rains. Southern Minnesota appears to have the best chance of strong storms, but they appear to be pretty isolated.

Another round of showers and storms will develop PM Saturday, some of which will be strong to severe.

The weather outlook for the Twin Cities on Friday, August 27th will be unsettled with chances of showers and storms, some of which could be strong with locally heavy rainfall.

The meteograms for Minneapolis on Friday shows temps warming from the 60s in the morning to the upper 70s by the afternoon with unsettled skies. Southeasterly winds will be a bit breezy at times with gusts approaching 20mph.

The weather outlook across the region on Friday shows temps running slightly below average across the northern half of the state with areas of showers and storms developing.

The extended weather outlook for Minneapolis shows near average temps over the next several days with highs warming into the upper 70s and lower 80s. However, Saturday will be the warmest day with highs in the mid 80s, which will be nearly +5F to +10F above average. However, for the first time in a while, there are several days over the next 5 to 10 days that could have rain.

According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, the 8 to 14 day temperature outlook shows cooler than average temps across the northern tier of the nation with warmer than average temps across the southern tier of the nation.

But nothing could prepare me for this week's weather whiplash: flash flooding in the midst of the worst statewide drought since 1988? Only in Minnesota is it possible to be knee-deep in muddy weather with dust blowing in your face.

A nearly stationary frontal boundary acts as a thunder-magnet into Saturday night. ECMWF (European model) prints out 3-6 inches and a few spots may see 8 inches. Flash flooding is possible in some towns. Apparently Mother Nature is exempt from watering restrictions. Timing the storms is impossible, but puddles proliferate the next 36 hours, with a month's worth of rain in some locations. Sunday looks like the first dry day at the State Fair.

Meanwhile, what may evolve into Hurricane Ida is heading toward Louisiana with a growing risk for New Orleans. What can possibly go wrong now.

FRIDAY: T-storms, some flooding. Winds: SE 8-13. High: 78.

FRIDAY NIGHT: Chance of showers & storms. Winds: SE 5. Low: 68.

SUNDAY: Dry with more clouds than sun. Winds: W 10-20. Wake-up: 69. High: 79.

MONDAY: Partly sunny and quiet. Winds: S 7-12. Wake-up: 60. High: 80.

TUESDAY: Unsettled, slight thunder chance. Winds: SE 10-15. Wake-up: 63. High: 78.

WEDNESDAY: More heavy showers, T-storms. Winds: SE 10-15. Wake-up: 64. High: 81.

THURSDAY: More T-storms in the area. Winds: NW 8-13. Wake-up: 65. High: 82.

1992: A chilly night in Embarrass, where the temperature dips to 28 degrees.

August 27th

Average High: 79F (Record: 99F set in 1926)

Average Low: 60F (Record: 42F set in 1887)

Record Rainfall: 2.80" set in 1978

Sunrise: 6:29am

Sunset: 7:58pm

Hours of Daylight: ~13 hours & 29 minutes

Daylight LOST since yesterday: ~ 2 minute & 44 seconds

Daylight LOST since Summer Solstice (June 20th): ~2 Hour & 8 Minutes

"Farthest quarter moon - The most distant quarter moon of the year falls on August 30, 2021. That's because this quarter moon more closely aligns with lunar apogee – the moon's farthest point from Earth in its monthly orbit – than does any other quarter moon in 2021."

See more from Earth Sky HERE:

The #DixieFire is the 2nd largest fire in California's history burning nearly 750,000 acres as of August 26th. The fire is only 45% contained and has burned several structures. The largest wildfires in the state's history was the August Complex from 2020, which burned more than 1 million acres.

See more from Inciweb HERE:

According to NOAA's National Hurricane Center, Ida has developed and is heading NW toward the Gulf Coast. There are 2 other waves in the Atlantic that have a high probability of formation over the next 5 days. The good news is that these particular waves don't appear to be any threats to any major land masses anytime soon.

The national weather outlook into the weekend shows unsettled weather moving through the Midwest with strong to severe storms and locally heavy rainfall. We'll also be keeping any eye on Ida as the storm moves closer to the Gulf Coast through the weekend.

According to NOAA's Weather Prediction Center areas of heavy rainfall will be possible across parts of the Midwest. There will also be areas of heavy rain along the Gulf Coast as Ida lifts north.

"In a historic first, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation earlier this month declared a water shortage on the Colorado River, triggering emergency measures that will require farmers in Arizona to cut their use of irrigation water by 20% next year. The immediate cause of the declaration is record low water levels in Lake Mead, the largest reservoir fed by the river. But scientists say the crisis has been years in the making—and could soon get worse. For reasons they don't completely understand, but that are related to the West's changing climate, snow that falls in the Rocky Mountains—the source of about 80% of the Colorado—has been providing the river with less and less water. "This is an existential water crisis for the Southwest," says Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Next week, researchers will begin an innovative campaign to better understand the fundamental processes—from the behavior of tiny particles that become snowflakes to weather patterns that influence how snow vanishes into thin air—that determine how mountain precipitation becomes surface water for 40 million people. "What gets us going in the morning is the large number of people that really rely on this resource," says atmospheric scientist Daniel Feldman of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), who leads the effort."

See more from Scientific Mag HERE:

"The move could help draw attention to the dangers posed by extreme temperatures, one of the hallmarks of the climate crisis. Greece has suffered through a summer of hellish heat. Now, experts want to give heat waves names and rankings like the ones assigned to hurricanes and tropical storms. Heat is often called a "silent killer" because while it doesn't cause the same visible destruction that storms, tornadoes, or fires do, it is one of the deadliest forms of extreme weather in the world. "Unlike other adverse weather events, you can't see extreme heat," Kostas Lagouvardos, research director at the National Observatory of Athens, told the Guardian's sister newspaper the Observer. He said policymakers and the public need to be aware of the quiet dangers heat poses, and that naming heat waves could be a way to do just that. "We believe people will be more prepared to face an upcoming weather event when the event has a name," he said. "They'll become more aware of the possible problems it could cause to their lives and to their properties."

"A new satellite image captured over the southwestern part of Greenland shows the damage last week's heat wave did to the ice sheet. The image above is beautiful, but looks can be deceptive. It shows there's way too much ice is melting in Greenland, and we should all be concerned. The tranquil, surreal scene was captured by a European Space Agency satellite over the weekend. It shows meltwater swirling over the ice cap in the southwestern part of the country. But while everything looks calm, the image is a sign of a future that's anything but. The melting on the ice cap was triggered by an Arctic heat wave—the region's second major one of the summer. It brought temperatures in some areas to 32 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius) warmer than the seasonal average, and also caused raindrops to fall at the National Science Foundation's Summit Station, a weather observatory roughly 2 miles (3 kilometers) above sea level, for the first time in recorded history. The ice melt extent peaked at 337,000 square miles (872,000 square kilometers) on Sunday, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. That's an area of about half of the ginormous sheet. That's major, especially so late in the season. But this meltdown was actually slightly smaller than the big melt event that happened in late July, which spread across 340,000 square miles (880,595 square kilometers). Due to this year's heat, the Greenland ice sheet reached its highest maximum daily melting rate recorded since 1950, losing seven times more ice than normal, according to an analysis by University of Liège climate scientists."

See more from Gizmodo HERE: