Sun cloud weekend mix; May 1st cool month since August 2015?

Welcome to the unofficial start of summer in Minnesota. Friday's warm temps, blue skies, and towering cumulus are a sign that summery air masses are pushing closer to this northern latitude.

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Blue sky and white cumulus clouds over a green landscape in the southwest Twin Cities Friday. Image: Paul Huttner/MPRNews

This Memorial Day weekend brings a mix of sun and clouds, with a side of generally brief passing spotty rain showers. Including this glorious Friday, I'd give our holiday weekend weather a solid B considering how wet it's been this month. Then again, we grade our weather on a curve here in Minnesota.

My father was in the U.S. Navy at the end of WW ll. He and his crew were literally on an aircraft carrier heading for deployment in the Pacific theater when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war. Here's to all who served, and to those paid the ultimate price for our freedoms today.

Sun, cloud, shower mix

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Don't like the weather? Just wait 15 minutes. That old weather adage holds true this weekend. A parade of cumulus cloud waves march through with some sun mixed in between. No all day rains ahead, but a few generally light showers pass by. We'll get some dry hours in between. Pick your spots this weekend.

Given the chaotic, hour by hour pattern this weekend; the state of numerical weather modeling doesn't allow us to express high confidence in precisely which hours will be wet or dry this weekend. We're in nowcast mode. The Canadian GEM model captures the essence of occasional hit or miss showers this weekend.

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Canadian GEM model via tropical tidbits.

Memorial Day Weekend: One-third rain

Overall this is a pretty typical pattern for Memorial Day weekend. Looking at the numbers, it rains this weekend about 34% of the time. Even par for the course.

Cooler Sunday and Monday

Friday and Saturday are the mildest days of the next 4. Temps pull back into the 60s by Sunday and Monday. We warm up again next week.

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NOAA via Weather Bell.

May: First cooler than average month since August 2015?

As of this writing it's 79 degrees at MSP Airport Friday afternoon. Today's warmer than average temps bring our monthly temperature average at MSP Airport very close to average. The last 5 days of May look slightly cooler than average overall. That means May is likely to be the first (barely) cooler than average months at MSP Airport since August 2015.

Our unprecedented, record setting string of warmer than average months appears ready to end at 20 months.

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Minnesota DNR climate working group.

Drought Monitor: Lowest drought area on record

Rainfall has been widespread and generous to inundating this year across the USA. The U.S. Drought Monitor is at its lowest level since records began in 1999.

Tornado track update

Here's the latest update on the Wisconsin tornado track, with finer details from the Twin Cities NWS.

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Twin Cities NWS

Jarrel, TX tornado 20 years ago this weekend

I remember seeing the damage. When foundations are wiped clean, that and EF5 tornado. Finger of God stuff.

Solar eclipse from space

Climate Cast: It's all about water

Climate scientists and water experts see climate change as the single biggest driver of water resources going forward. We've literally changed the hydrologic cycle. The effects are already here, and will ripple with increasing strength in the next 10-15 years.

I spoke with Peter Gleick from The Pacific Institute about the state of water and climate Thursday on Climate Cast.

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