The IR Satellite from Saturday evening showed Category 2 Hurricane Ida centered in the Gulf of Mexico with sustained winds of 105mph as 7pm. Hurricane Ida is expected to make landfall along the Louisiana Coast late Sunday, possibly as a Category 4 storm.

According to NOAA's NHC, Ida will quickly intensify through the weekend and could reach major category 4 status on Sunday with winds of 130mph before landfall late in the day. This is shaping up to be an extremely dangerous storm with life-threatening rainfall, storm surge, inland flooding and strong winds.

A number of Tropical Alerts have been issued along the Gulf Coast in advance of Ida. Here are some of the Key Messages from NOAA's NHC regarding Ida:

One of the biggest concerns with Ida will be the life-threatening storm surge. A storm surge of 10ft to 15ft could be possible on the southeast side of the Louisiana Coast. Again, this will be a dangerous storm with life-threatening impacts in terms of highs winds, storm surge and inland flooding.

Another big concerns will be heavy rainfall with some spots seeing as much as 10" to near 20" in southeastern Louisiana. Heavy rainfall and flooding could cause life-threatening situations as well. Do not take this storm lightly.

The weather outlook for the Twin Cities on Sunday, August 29th looks much better and drier than is was on Saturday. Temps and dewpoint values will be lower, so it will feel much better with sunnier skies later in the day.

The meteograms for Minneapolis on Sunday shows temps warming from near 70F in the morning to the mid to upper 70s by the afternoon. Skies will be a bit cloudy in the morning, but we should be able to sun up through the rest of the day. West to northwesterly winds will be a bit breezy with gusts approaching 20mph through the afternoon.

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. After drier and sunnier days on Sunday & Monday, showers will be possible Tuesday through the upcoming weekend.

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

Remember the last severe thunderstorm you witnessed? Horizontal rain - airborne lawn furniture - the dog hiding under the couch? Hurricane Ida's sustained winds will be more than twice as strong; shrieking, roof-curling winds blowing for 12-18 hours.

I have flown through hurricanes onboard Hurricane Hunter reconnaissance aircraft, but (thank God) never lived through a direct strike. It's not high on my list. Wind makes headlines, but the major threats are storm surge flooding (which may extend a few miles into coastal Louisiana) and flash flooding well inland. "Ida" is striking 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans. Praying history doesn't repeat itself.

Today will be dry and siren-free with lower humidity and a few sunny peeks. A sunny, quiet start to the week gives rise to another surge of T-storms Thursday into Saturday, and sweatshirts may return by Labor Day up north.

SUNDAY: Sunny peeks, less humid. Winds: NW 10-15. High: 77.

SUNDAY NIGHT: Mostly clear and quiet. Winds: W 5-10. Low: 59.

MONDAY: Blue sky, very pleasant. Winds: SW 5-10. High: 80.

TUESDAY: Patchy clouds, dry at the State Fair. Winds: E 10-15. Wake-up: 59. High: 80.

WEDNESDAY: Partly sunny and mild. Winds: SE 10-15. Wake-up: 62. High: 80.

FRIDAY: Drying out - clouds linger. Winds: NE 8-13. Wake-up: 64. High: 76.

SATURDAY: More showers and T-storms. Winds: S 10-15. Wake-up: 63. High: 78.

August 29th

1989: Baseball-sized hail pummels Pequot Lakes.

August 29th

Average Low: 60F (Record: 45F set in 1946)

Record Rainfall: 2.05" set in 1964

August 13th

Sunrise: 6:32am

Sunset: 7:55pm

Daylight LOST since yesterday: ~ 2 minute & 58 seconds

Daylight LOST since Summer Solstice (June 20th): ~2 Hour & 14 Minutes

0.0 Days Before Last Quarter Moon

"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."

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The weather outlook on Saturday shows above average temps across much of the nation with scattered showers and storms across the Central & Southern US.

The national weather outlook on Sunday will be very active for the Gulf Coast and Lower Mississippi Valley as Hurricane Ida makes landfall. This will be a life-threatening situation with heavy rainfall, storm surge, inland flooding and strong winds.

According to NOAA's Weather Prediction Center areas of heavy rainfall will be possible across in the Lower Mississippi Valley as Hurricane Ida blows through. Up to 10" of rain or more can't be ruled out, which could cause significant flooding. Meanwhile, areas of heavy rainfall will be possible through the weekend across the Upper Midwest. Also note the heavier monsoon moisture in the Desert Southwest over the coming days.

"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."

"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."

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"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."

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