Eclipse magic in photos, warming trend next week?
It just doesn't get any better than this.
Today's rare selenelion total lunar eclipse outperformed expectations in Minnesota. Crystal clear skies and a dry autumn air mass with dew points in the desert-like 30s made for excellent viewing.
The twitterverse exploded with smoky reddish black lunar images this morning.
Missed the event this morning? You'll get another chance in April and September next year.
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Forecast: Spectacular fall Saturday ahead?
For some reason I always get nostalgic on sunny, mild October Saturdays. I vividly recall an annual tradition at the original Deephaven Huttner Weather Lab as a boy.
October Saturday's meant fall cleaning.
My dad rounded up all six kids, and put us to work cleaning out the garage and basement in anticipation of winter. A summer's worth of junk was collected and loaded up for removal. I can still feel the twine sliding between my fingers as we stacked and bundled reams of newspapers, and loaded them up for a trip to the dump. Yes, this was the pre-recycling era, and that's what most Minnesotans did back in the day.
A pristine blue sky overhead. A still warm October sun. A blaze of gold and red in the maple trees along the driveway. The first few rust colored leaves crunching underfoot. Gopher football on the radio. A few wispy cirrus clouds drifting by as the sound of a Cessna drifts by searching for the final approach to Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie.
That's what I'll be thinking about this Saturday.
Our cool crisp autumnal high pressure cell drifts overhead the rest of this week.
Sunny skies, crisp nights and cool days persist through Saturday.
The backside brings milder southwest breezes Saturday. Temps should rebound into the 60s, I think the output laid out below from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Global Forecast System has a cool bias on Saturday's eventual high temperature. Showers may return by Sunday.
In the longer range the GFS and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts hint at a string of milder days in the mid to upper 60s as we slowly drift toward the end of October.
Stay tuned.