W’ve been dealing with drizzle, mist, and light rain showers for a couple of days now, but as we move into the weekend tomorrow and Sunday, our skies are going to be drier and less cloudy which will make for decent viewing for the Orionid Meteor Shower that will reach its peak late Saturday night.  This particular meteor shower will occur as remnant particles of dust and ice from Halley’s comet will burn up as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere this weekend when our planet passes through the comet’s orbit.  For more information see below:

 http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors     

Mainly clear to partly cloudy skies Saturday night should allow us to view the Orionid Meteor Shower.

Posted under Astronomy

Fire Danger across Minnesota from the DNR

Dry weather continues yet another day for us – now 26 days in Rochester without any rainfall.

That’s been good since the late September floods, but the dryness is turning into a fire hazard.

The Minnesota DNR now places the southern third of Minnesota in a Moderate fire danger rating, with the Twin Cities northward in a High fire danger. Basically, fires can start easily and spread.

If you have burning planned, check before you do so. Burning restrictions are in place across the state, and it’s better to be on the safe side, here.

A cold front on Wednesday will kick our winds up to about 20-30mph during the afternoon. High winds along with the dry conditions will add an additional fire threat.

Dry weather being said, we’ll have more active weather this weekend, with showers looking to be a good bet. Also, there appears to be some change shaping up in the 8-10 day forecasts. I’m generally not one to jump on longer ranged forecasts, but things get interesting by mid next week, and this is too fun to ignore.  Right  now – it looks like anything is possible.

Posted under fall, fire danger ratings

Even with the recent rain, southern Minnesot remains in a high fire danger rating. We’re sitting better than central and northern part of Minnesota, where the lack of a greening rain, sunshine, and dry, mild conditions have led to very high to extreme fire danger ratings. In central and northern Minnesota, red flag warnings are up because of the dry weather and windy conditions. Click here for more info from the MN DNR.

Burning permits are still required for nearly all our area – some counties aren’t allowing permits to be issed (campfires excluded).

There’s no rain in the forecast this weekend, nor for the first several days of next week. What I do have for you is the 60s, lots of them, the chance for some frost Saturday and Sunday mornings, and breezy winds again on Saturday. Enjoy the sunny weekend!

Posted under spring