Thunderstorms Tuesday into Thursday; dry and hot by weekend

With apologies to Las Vegas, what happens in California doesn’t stay in California. Especially wildfires. The Park Fire continues to scorch land near Chico, pumping wildfire smoke thousands of miles downwind, giving Minnesota skies a hazy-blue complexion. Consider this: Roughly 7.6 million acres of forest have gone up in smoke so far this year across western Canada and the USA. That’s nearly 12,000 square miles, roughly half the size of Lake Michigan. For the next few months if everything outside smell A nagging upper level disturbance (unusually cold puddle of air aloft) sparks more thunderstorms Tuesday into Thursday. We dry out Friday with hot sunshine returning for the weekend. I could see 90 degrees Friday into Monday of next week.

s like smoke you’ll know why.

If skies clear you may want to watch for the northern lights. A geomagnetic storm watch is in effect through Wednesday. Watches at G3 level are infrequent, but not uncommon. This is the result of solar flares (coronal mass ejections).