Dodging a weather bullet
This one falls under the category of, "it could have been worse."
The Twin Cities got lucky Wednesday. The sequence of events on an amazing weather day left the highly populated metro area relatively unscathed, even as storms and damage raged all around.
It started with the morning derecheo that roared through central Minnesota and the northwest Wisconsin lake country. Blow down like straight line winds downed trees from Grantsburg to Spooner and beyond. That complex passed north of the metro. The damage was bad enough in Wisconsin, but imagine the damage and potential for injuries had it tracked south into the metro.
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Radar loop shows derecheo tracking through central Minnesota into Wisconsin Wednesday morning.
Some of the debris clouds from the morning MCS lingered over the metro through midday Wednesday. That limited surface heating in the critical midday hours, and delayed the development of tornadic afternoon storms near the metro.
Because of the delay in development tornadic storms fired rapidly just east and southeast of the metro.
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The storms then evolved into a second damaging wind producing derecheo and rolled into Wisconsin, downing numerous trees in Menomonie along the I-94 corridor. Again, had those storms formed an hour earlier and 30 miles ot the west, the outcome could have been much worse in terms of damage for the densely populated metro area.
Highest dew point in 3 years in metro:
The dew point reached 78 degrees in the metro Wednesday. That was the highest reading in 3 years, since June 26, 2007. It's also within 3 degrees of the highest reading ever in the Twin Cities which is 81 degrees on July 30th, 1999.
To illustrate how rare it is to have dew points that high in Minnesota, the dew point has only reached 78 degrees or higher 114 hours since 1945!
Dry break, then severe Saturday?
We'll enjoy some free air conditioning today with dew points down into the comfy 50s in Minnesota. Temperatures will still be warm in the mid to upper 80s, but it will feel a whole lot more tolerable. Temps may push 90 Friday and Saturday, and some humidity will creep back into the picture by then.
The next frontal system may trigger more severe storms in Minnesota late Saturday.
More heat is still on the way for later next week.
Enjoy our quiet weather respite.
PH