While the remnants of former hurricane Sandy continue to pummel the East Coast with heavy rain, strong winds, and piles of snow, our local weather looks to stay cool, dry, and peaceful as we approach Halloween.  The bright sunshine we’re enjoying today looks to carry over to Wednesday while temperatures may even warm slightly and the winds will be a bit less gusty.  Look for plenty of bright sunshine, a slight northwest breeze, and high temperatures in the low 50s for Halloween Wednesday.  The pleasant weather looks to continue into the evening. 

Our Halloween forecast looks very similar to the past few years' as evening temps will be seasonably cool and the winds will likely be fairly light. The moon will be just a day past full,so that should add a little spookiness as well.

Incidentally, while we’re looking ahead at important dates, the current forecast for Election Day next Tuesday looks a little damp with a chance for widely scattered light showers and high temperatures in the 50s.  It certainly won’t be quite as mild as the last presidential election in 2008 when Rochester set a record high temperature with a reading of 74 degrees, but it should still be okay. 

Posted under Holidays

We sure have a gorgeous weather picture in the region today thanks to some cool, dry air that has blown in from the north thanks to a broad area of high pressure centered over the western Great Lakes.  If you love September weather, today is the day to get outside and enjoy as this weather is almost reminiscent of late summer or early fall with temperatures in the 70s and low humidity across the Upper Mississippi Valley.  As you might expect this scenario is going to be short lived, however, as we are anticipating the arrival of a warm front from the wet in the next couple of days that will bring back some more seasonable heat and humidity, eventually pushing the mercury into the 90s once again.  We’ll have sunny skies through today with a slight east breeze that will continue to draw in that dry, comfortable air for a bit longer.  Changes begin to take place tonight as a couple of showers and thunderstorms will show up after midnight associated with a warm front that will eventually spread a few more thunderstorns into the area tomorrow and tomorrow night before it completely pushes through the area on Friday, bringing that summertime heat to the area.  We’ll have highs in the 80s by Friday and then near 90 degree heat on Saturday before low to mid 90s become the rule for four or five days between Sunday and the middle of next week.

While we enjoy some mild temperatures today, the hottest weather is confined to the southern and southwestern U.S.

The jetstream will shift northward by Sunday, allowing intense heat to surge northward. Our highs will be in the 90s and will likely remain rather hot for several days under that ridge.

Posted under heat

We’ve reached what may be the best day of the week today thanks to a strong area of high pressure of Canadian origin.  We have postcard picture perfect conditions outside for our Tuesday with bright blue skies, comfortable temperatures, and low humidity levels in the atmosphere.  We’ll have highs in the mid 70s this afternoon which is a couple of degrees cooler than what we consider to be “normal” for this time of the year, but I seriously doubt there will be many complaints.  We began to feel tha changes on Monday when a cold front swept through the area, stirring up some gusty northwest winds that quickly worked to pull dry air in, dropping our dew points from the middle and upper 60s to the lower 50s through the course of the afternoon.  If this type of weather is your thing, so to speak, be sure to get out and enjoy it as much as you can because we have more of a taste of summer ahead in the coming days.  After a gorgeous Tuesday, we’ll enjoy another sunny day tomorrow with highs in the lower 80s, but humidity levels will begin to gradually climb during the day and then on Thursday things will get downright hot and humid although the gusty nature of our south winds that day will help it feel a little more bearable.  We’ll have highs near 90° for Thursday and Friday with 80s in store for the holiday weekend which certainly is very July-like, but perhaps a little less comfortable for those who prefer today’s weather conditions.

Humidity levels will be very tolerable today to say the least. The dew point temperature gives us an idea of how much humidity is in the air and when it's below 60 or so in the summer, we're feeling dry and comfortable.

By Thursday, a warm front will begin to swing through the region, drawing in some hot and humid air from the south. We'll have a slight chance for a thundershower or two as well.

Posted under weather

A cold front working its way southward through the area sparked some thunderstorms earlier Wednesday morning across extreme southeast Minnesota, northeast Iowa, and western Wisconsin. These storms brought mainly some penny to nickel-sized hail.

The cold front responsible for said storms is creating quite the line of severe weather across parts of central Iowa, southern Wisconsin, northern Iowa, Michigan, and the upper Ohio River valley, where severe thunderstorm watches are in effect.

Aside from maybe the Decorah area, we are in the clear for severe weather – and even stormy weather in general - as we round out our Wednesday. it’s cool and dry behind this front – Temps are only in the 60s, dew points in the 40s in northern Minnesota! – but even though there’s plenty of cooler Canadian air filtering in, the strong July sun is still managing to warm us up. It’s a good balance – nice warmth, but without the muggy addition.

In fact, the next couple of days are looking similar, with high pressure taking over. Which will add up to great weather for those outdoor plans and fireworks shows for the 4th of July!

Speaking of which, if you haven’t taken the poll yet on the KTTC homepage, we’re curious as to where you think the best fireworks displays are. Just scroll down the hompage until you get towards the bottom. Vote now – or at least before 10 p.m. Wednesday night – we’ll have the results on the 10 p.m. newscast!

Posted under KTTC, weather