Wildfire Smoke Hangs Around Through Thursday

After a recent break from polluted air, another batch of Canadian wildfire smoke sank southward with a cold front on Wednesday, bringing unhealthy to very unhealthy air to the region.

Here's a look at that air quality during the late afternoon hours across the region. Very unhealthy air had been reported across portions of central Minnesota, with unhealthy air stretching from the Red River Valley to the Twin Cities and south-central Minnesota.

Air quality reached the very unhealthy range in St. Cloud during the mid-afternoon hours on Wednesday.

The Twin Cities reached the very unhealthy range at 4 PM.

As the poor air quality will continue, Air Quality Alerts remain in place. In northern Minnesota, these alerts go until Thursday morning. In central and southern Minnesota, they are in place until Friday morning. In western Wisconsin, it's in place through Noon Thursday.

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Smoky and hazy skies will continue to plague the Twin Cities with poor air quality. Morning lows start off in the low 60s with highs in the low 80s.

Especially across central and southern Minnesota, that smoke will stick around in the atmosphere, but cleaner skies should work into northern Minnesota. Highs range from the 60s along the North Shore due to a lake breeze to the low 90s in southwestern Minnesota.

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While the smoke keeps temperatures down here during the middle of the week, it'll clear out for the end of the week and the weekend, meaning we will see warmer temperatures return.

Friday: We should see mainly sunny skies here in the metro as highs climb to the mid-80s.

Saturday: Highs will be slightly warmer in the mid to upper 80s. We'll see a mix of sun and clouds to mainly sunny skies with an isolated storm threat here in the metro. There will be a better chance of some showers and storms out across western Minnesota.

Sunday: Temperatures will be about the same on Sunday as they are Saturday but with more clouds than sun. Once again we watch some rain chances, mainly across western Minnesota.

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Off And On Wildfire Smoke Into The Weekend
By Paul Douglas

I need to get my hands on a left-handed wind-shifter. Wait, you've never heard of such a thing? I'm an old Eagle Scout and during summer camp we would often send Tenderfoot scouts on wild goose chases as part of a poorly thought-out hazing ritual. Snipe hunts at night (no such thing as a snipe) and a left-handed wind-shifter request, so campfire smoke could be shifted away from our tents. We need the industrial-size version of that, but alas, there isn't much we can do about wildfire smoke, the rough equivalent of billions of campfires run amok.

Yesterday was the 13th Air Quality Alert this year in the metro. Statewide we've had 18 AQAs. The record is 20 in 2021, and we should easily blow that away. I didn't have thick smoke on my 2023 Weather Bingo Card.

Welcome to the Dog Days of June. A stagnant, smoky, generally dry pattern into next week with a few T-showers over far western Minnesota this weekend. Drought is spreading and the mercury is rising. I see a streak of hot 90-degree days next week. Here we go.

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Paul's Extended Twin Cities Forecast

THURSDAY: Partly sunny, smoky. Wake up 64. High 82. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind NE 10-15 mph.

FRIDAY: Cooler with smoked sunshine. Wake up 60. High 80. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind SE 7-12 mph.

SATURDAY: Warm sunshine, T-storms far west MN. Wake up 65. High 89. Chance of precipitation 20%. Wind S 8-13 mph.

SUNDAY: Hot, murky sunshine. Wake up 68. High 90. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind SE 10-20 mph.

MONDAY: Sunny and hot. Wake up 68. High 90. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind SE 10-15 mph.

TUESDAY: Stuffy with haze and smoke. Wake up 69. High 89. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind SE 8-13 mph.

WEDNESDAY: Sunny, sticky and hot. Wake up 70. High 90. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind SE 8-13 mph.

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Minneapolis Weather Almanac And Sun Data
June 15th

*Length Of Day: 15 hours, 35 minutes, and 35 seconds
*Daylight GAINED Since Yesterday: 28 seconds

*Most Sunlight In A Day: June 21st (15 hours, 36 minutes, 51 seconds)
*Earliest Sunrises Of The Year: June 13th-17th (5:25 AM)
*Earliest Sunsets Of The Year: June 21st-July 2nd (9:03 PM)
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This Day in Weather History
June 15th

1989: Scattered frost develops across Minnesota, with the coldest reading of 29 at Isabella.

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A stalled-out boundary across the southern United States Thursday will continue to bring the region rounds of showers and thunderstorms - some of which could be severe and contain heavy rain as well. A system working east across the Great Lakes will bring storm chances to the eastern Great Lakes and the Northeast. We'll also watch some storm chances in the Plains and back into the Great Basin, with some snow mixing in at the higher elevations of the Rockies during the coldest portions of the day.

Very heavy rain is expected to fall from Wednesday through Friday evening across the Southeastern United States, with at least 3-5" possibly bringing the threat of flash flooding.

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New England and the upper Midwest could have a higher fire risk than the West this year. Here's why

More from CNN: "Unusually hot and dry northeastern and upper Midwest states are forecast to be wildfire hotspots this summer, while historically fire-prone Western states, including California, have a lower-than-normal predicted wildfire risk. A summer wildfire outlook from the National Interagency Fire Center paints an atypical picture, with the highest potential for wildfires largely in the northernmost parts of the country. New England states including Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, as well as parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and nearly all of Michigan – along with areas in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest – are also facing an elevated risk of fire."

'My life and my home': young people start to testify at historic US climate trial

More from The Guardian: "The US's first-ever trial in a constitutional climate lawsuit kicked off on Monday morning in a packed courtroom in Helena, Montana. The case, Held v Montana, was brought in 2020 by 16 plaintiffs between the ages of five and 22 from around the state who allege state officials violated their constitutional right to a healthy environment by enacting pro-fossil fuel policies. In opening statements, Roger Sullivan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, explained that climate change is fueling drought, wildfires, extreme heat and other environmental disasters throughout Montana, taking a major toll on the young plaintiffs' health and wellbeing. There is a "scientific consensus", he noted, that these changes can be traced back to the burning of fossil fuels."

Climate Change: Rising Rainfall, not Temperatures, Threaten Giraffe Survival

More from the University of Zurich: "Climate change is expected to cause widespread decline in wildlife populations worldwide. But little was previously known about the combined effects of climate change and human activity on the survival rates not only of giraffes, but of any large African herbivore species. Now researchers from the University of Zurich and Pennsylvania State University have concluded a decade-long study – the largest to date – of a giraffe population in the Tarangire region of Tanzania. The study area spanned more than a thousand square kilometers, including areas inside and outside protected areas. Contrary to expectations, higher temperatures were found to positively affect adult giraffe survival, while rainier wet seasons negatively impacted adult and calf survival."

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- D.J. Kayser