NOAA Makes It Official: El Nino Is Here

Storms are gone; expect a stiff breeze and cool sunshine today (with a risk of Canadian wildfire smoke reaching the ground). Looking ahead I see mostly 80s this week. The months ahead? With El Nino expect the unexpected. Check the blog for more updates. -Todd Nelson

June 11, 2023 at 3:17AM
(@TNelsonWX/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Weather Outlook Through Midday Sunday

The Weather outlook through Midday Sunday shows quiet weather in place through the rest of the weekend with breezy winds.

Extended Weather Outlook Through Midday Monday (COD Weather/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Extended Precipitation Outlook

The extended precipitation forecast through next week shows heavier rainfall potential across the western part of the state.

Extended Precipitation Outlook (CODWeather/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Twin Cities Weather Outlook For Sunday

The weather outlook for the Twin Cities on Sunday, June 11th shows dry conditions throughout the day with breezy northerly winds.

Weather Outlook For Sunday (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Meteograms For Minneapolis

The hourly temps through the day Sunday show temps starting in the mid 50s in the morning with highs warming into the lower 70s by the afternoon. Northeasterly winds will gust close to 20mph to 25mph through the day.

Hourly Temps & Sky Condition For Minneapolis on Sunday (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Hourly Wind Gusts & Direction For Minneapolis on Sunday (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Weather Outlook For Sunday

Here's the weather outlook across the region for Sunday. High temps will generally warm into the 70s across the state, which will be at or slightly below average for this time of the year.

Weather Outlook For Sunday (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Highs From Average on Sunday (Preadictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Extended Temperature Outlook For Minneapolis

Temperatures over the next few days will be a little cooler than it has been with readings falling into the 70s Sunday. The cooler weather won't last long as readings warm back to well above average levels into next week.

5 Day Temperature Outlook For Minneapolis (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Lower Dewpoints Sunday and Monday

Dewpoints will be a little cooler through early next week before creeping back to more uncomfortable levels.

Daily Max Dewpoint For Minneapolis (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Extended Weather Outlook For Minneapolis

The extended weather outlook for the Twin Cities looks cooler through early next week before hotter and more humid weather returns by the middle part of next week.

Extended Weather Outlook For Minneapolis (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Extended Temperature Outlook

The NBM extended temperature outlook for Minneapolis shows slightly cooler readings through the weekend. However, very summer-like readings return as we head into mid-month.

NBM Extended Temperature Outlook For Minneapolis (WeatherBell/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Weather Outlook

A bigger storm system will develop in the Central US over the weekend with strong to severe thunderstorms possible across the Southern US with locally heavy rain. After a few storms in the Midwest on Saturday, cooler and quieter weather moves in through early next week.

Weather Outlook Through Next Week (Tropical Tidbits/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

8 to 14 Day Temperature Outlook

According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, the 8 to 14-day temperature outlook shows warmer-than-average temperatures settling in across much of the Central US, including the Midwest, while cooler than average temps will settle in across the Western US.

8 to 14 Day Temperature Outlook (NOAA CPC/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

8 to 14 Day Precipitation Outlook

According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, the 8 to 14 Day precipitation outlook shows more active weather possible across the Central and Western US as we head into mid-month.

8 to 14 Day Precipitation Outlook (NOAA WPC/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

NOAA Makes It Official: El Nino Is Here
By Paul Douglas

New words are entering our weather lexicon. "Flash droughts" (sudden dry spells) and "dry thunderstorms" (lightning but little rain) and "vertically integrated smoke plumes" on our weather models. I honestly didn't think I'd be tracking smoke after the 3rd snowiest winter on record.

It's official: According to NOAA, El Nino is in full swing, expected to strengthen into the fall and winter months. And temperatures in the atmosphere and the world's oceans are unusually warm; freakishly warm - setting records. A La Nina cool phase in the Pacific has kept us cooler than we would have been otherwise for nearly 3 years. Those days appear to be over. I expect drought to worsen and heat to build into July with 20-25 days above 90F (average is 13 days). We've already picked up 5 days of 90+ at MSP.

Storms are gone; expect a stiff breeze and cool sunshine today (with a risk of Canadian wildfire smoke reaching the ground).

Looking ahead I see mostly 80s this week. The months ahead? With El Nino expect the unexpected.

Extended Forecast

SUNDAY: Sunny, still breeze. Winds: NE 10-20. High: 72.

SUNDAY NIGHT: Mostly clear and quiet. Winds: NNE 5-10. Low: 53.

MONDAY: Sunny start, PM clouds build. Winds: NW 10-20. High: 77.

TUESDAY: Warm sunshine. Winds: NW 8-13. Wake-up. 60. High: 87.

WEDNESDAY: Partly sunny and dry. Winds: NW 8-13. Wake-up: 63. High 85.

THURSDAY: Plenty of sun, a bit cooler. Winds: NE 8-13. Wake-up: 57. High 82.

FRIDAY: Mix of clouds and sunshine. Winds: E 7-12. Wake-up: 56. High 79.

SATURDAY: Some hazy sun, storms may stay south. Winds: SE 7-12. Wake-up: 59. High: 82.

This Day in Weather History

June 11th

2011: Severe thunderstorms bring extremely strong wind to central Minnesota. An unofficial wind gust of 119 mph is reported at a seed farm 1 mile northwest of Atwater. A storm chaser's car was battered when he got too close to the storm. Most of the windows in the car were broken.

1996: 5.91 inches of rain fall at Mankato. Mudslides close roads, including Hwy. 169, and push a trailer home 20 feet down a hill.

1922: A hailstorm at Maple Plain causes extensive damage to crops.

Average High/Low for Minneapolis

June 11th

Average High: 72F (Record: 96F set in 1956)

Average Low: 59F (Record: 40F set in 1903)

Record Rainfall: 2.58" set in 1975

Record Snowfall: Trace in 2017

Twin Cities Almanac For June 11th (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Sunrise/Sunset Times for Minneapolis

June 11th

Sunrise: 5:26am

Sunset: 8:58pm

Hours of Daylight: ~15 hours & 32 minutes

Daylight GAINED since yesterday: +45 Seconds

Daylight GAINED since Winter Solstice (December 21st): ~ 6 hour & 46 minutes

Moon Phase for June 11th at Midnight

1.5 Days After Last Quarter Moon

Moon Phase For June 11th at Midnight (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

National High Temps on Sunday

Temperatures on Sunday will be a little cooler across the Midwest post cool front with thunderstorms possible farther south.

National Weather Outlook For Sunday (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
National Highs From Average (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

National Weather Sunday

The weather outlook on Sunday will be unsettled in spots across the Central US. Strong to severe thunderstorms will develop in the Southern US with gusty winds and hail as the primary threats.

National Weather Outlook For Sunday (Praedictix/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

National Weather Outlook

The weather outlook through Sunday shows unsettled weather developing across the Central US with strong to severe thunderstorms likely in the Southern US. Some of the storms could produce gusty winds and large hail along with locally heavy rainfall.

Weather Outlook Through Monday (NOAA WPC/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Extended Precipitation Outlook

According to NOAA's Weather Prediction Center, the extended precipitation outlook shows heavier precipitation developing from parts of the Western US into the Central US and in the Eastern US. Some of the heaviest rain will be found closer to the Tennessee River Valley with several inches of rain possible there through next week.

Extended Precipitation Outlook (NOAA WPC/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Climate Stories

(NOAA/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

"Hundreds of U.S. Firefighters Deployed North to Battle Canadian Wildfires"

"Over 400 wildfires are raging across Canada this week and firefighting teams have been overwhelmed by the flames. Canadian officials have asked for foreign support, and several countries have offered to send supplies and people, including the United States. As of yesterday, the U.S. has deployed more than 600 firefighters and support personnel to help on the ground emergency response teams, according to the White House. Other countries have sent emergency response teams to Canada this week too. More than 200 firefighters from South Africa arrived in Alberta this past weekend. Several EU nations including France, Portugal, and Spain have also offered to send 280 firefighters and supplies to Canada too, Barron's reported."

"How NYC officials failed to prepare for an air quality crisis"

"On Monday evening, meteorologists at the National Weather Service center in Upton, New York, noticed something unusual in the satellite imagery. A thick wall of smoke from a series of wildfires that had broken out across Nova Scotia was moving south toward the Empire State. After examining the wind patterns and speed of the plume's movement, the meteorologists forecast it would enter the country's most densely populated city by the following morning. Sure enough, New Yorkers awoke on Tuesday to gray air that thickened over the course of the day. By evening the city smelled like a bonfire. By the following afternoon, the air had turned orange. When Stanford researchers crunched the numbers, they found that Wednesday, June 7 was the worst day of pollution from wildfire smoke in the nation's history, in terms of the average American's smoke exposure. Air quality plummeted across the Eastern United States, affecting cities from Charlotte to Philadelphia to Chicago. But in no city was the air worse than the Big Apple. The air quality index, or AQI, in parts of Brooklyn reached 484 — nearly double San Francisco's highest hourly reading during California's 2020 fire season. In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, New York Governor Kathy Hochul called it "a health and environmental crisis," and urged residents to take precautions. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the situation was "alarming and concerning," and told people to mask up and stay indoors."

"Climate change could be increasing 'night shining' noctilucent clouds"

"The Krakatoa eruption of 1883 was one of the deadliest in recorded history. The volcano, which lies on an island in Indonesia's Sunda Strait, had been threatening to blow for months. It had been sending plumes of ash and steam into the sky since May of that year, but at 1pm on 26 August the pressure beneath its rocky cones finally became too much. Four increasingly violent explosions over the next 24 hours all but destroyed the island. They killed over 36,000 people and could be heard 3,500 kilometres away in Australia. 21 cubic kilometres of rock and ash was blasted across 800,000 square kilometres and over 80 kilometres up into the air. So much ash was released into the atmosphere, the region was plunged into darkness for two and a half days. As the ash diffused and drifted around the world, its chemicals absorbed different wavelengths of light, causing spectacular red and orange sunsets and making the Moon glow blue for months."

Thanks for checking in and don't forget to follow me on Twitter @TNelsonWX

@TNelsonWX (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
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Todd Nelson

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