Frosty here; Miami’s $500M climate change battle

Welcome to October in Minnesota.

This is the month when trees turn color. Fall chores get done. People walk a little faster. Frosty pumpkins decorate front stoops.

Blue dominates the weather maps in southern Minnesota Friday morning as frost advisories cover the map, including the inner Twin Cities metro core.

Friday and Saturday morning will likely be the first days this season the official National Weather Service thermometer dips to 32 degrees at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Temperatures in the upper 20s will be common outside the metro area.

Here's the big high pressure cell that delivers the clear calm frosty mornings. The developing warm front on the back side of the high brings a milder breeze Saturday.

Temperatures trend upward into next week. Dry skies rule, except for late Sunday into Monday when the next low zips by with shower chances.

Miami battles King Tide as sea level rises

Flooded streets are becoming a fact of life now in Miami as sea levels rise. Spring and fall full moons deliver especially high tides. Now Miami is spending $500 million to adapt to increased coastal flooding in a changing climate and sea level rise.

Here's more from the Miami Herald on the battle to keep the King Tide at bay.

The streets of South Beach remained dry after newly-installed pumps kept millions of gallons of water from rising onto the roads as it has in years past.

As the highest of high tides started to roll through Monday, all eyes were on Miami Beach’s $15 million investment in the pumps. Monday’s rainfall combined with the “king tide” to create some brief road flooding that was drained out into the Biscayne Bay, but the rest of the week saw high tides cause little more than some puddles around drains — a far cry from the flooding scenes from years past with people wading across the street and cars undercarriages getting soaked in saltwater.

As permanent and temporary pumps worked in the flood-prone swath of South Beach stretching from Sunset Harbor down to the MacArthur Causeway, politicians and environmentalists gathered Thursday morning at Maurice Gibb Park to talk climate change and see the pumps at work.

Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine told the crowd of reporters and students that with the sea level projected to continue rising and several dozen more pumps left to be installed during the next five years, which will cost about $500 million more, this year's king tide is just a start.