Cool front today; Hot & thundery later; Brightest days of 2012 ahead

"Storm Ready" series continues today- a joint project with MPR News/KARE11 (details below)

85 in the metro Monday - Warmest of 2012 so far

90 in Hutchinson, Madison, Morris and Olivia Monday

Cool front moving through today; cooler breezes

Noticeably cooler today & tomorrow highs in the 70s

"Hot front" gurgles back north with heat & humidity by Thursday & Friday

Thundery - Growing T-Storms chances again by Thursday and into the weekend

Brighest Days: Longest daylight of 2012 in the next 10 weeks!

6:09pm June 20th - Summer Solstice 2012

15 hours 36 minutes of daylight on June 20th

Source: Twin Cities NWS

Cooler Front Today:

Welcome to the fresh breeze today, and life behind an advancing cool front. The front features noticeably cooler temps about 10 degrees below Monday's warm spell. Highs will stay in the 60s up north today, with some 70s south.

Our comfy front will linger through Wednesday with dry dew points in the 30s.

By the way Monday was the warmest day so far this year in Minnesota. We hit 85 in the metro. Last year we hit 88 on May 10th. We managed 4 days of 90 degree heat in June last year, and 10 in July including a torrid 99 on July 1st! Do you remember?

Thursday "Hot Front:" Hotter & humid with storms again

By Wednesday night, a powerful warm front will move north into Minnesota.

This is the leading edge of a warm (borderline hot) and sticky tropical air mass.

As the front pushes north Wednesday night, showers and T-Storms may bust out in the eastern Dakotas and Iowa and rumble north and east into Minnesota by Thursday morning.

Source: NOAA/HPC

Additional waves of thunder may slide through as we head into the weekend. Some of the models are hinting at some 1"+ rainfall totals with tropical downpours into the weekend.

Source: Iowa State University

We can't rule out developing MCS, and severe weather as the system moves in.

If we get sun during the day, temps should soar well into the 80s Friday & Saturday. Another wave of low pressure tracking in Sunday suggests a possible washout...stay tuned on that one.

Source: http://www.die.net/earth/

Brighter Days Ahead!

The next 10 weeks are the brightest days in Minnesota. We are now entering the 10 weeks with the longest daylight of 2012 in the northern hemisphere.

Source: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Daylight hours explorer

We hit 15 hours of daylight in Minnesota this weekend, and stay there until July 23rd. Daylight peaks at 15 hours and 36 minutes near June 20th, on the date of the summer solstice.

This year's solstice occurs at 6:09pm on June 20th.

These are the weeks to get out and enjoy the long evenings with daylight lingering in the western sky until well after 9pm for most of the next 2 months.

Tornado Options: Safer in your car?

The excellent reporting continues today with MPR News/KARE11's joint project on tornado safety in Minnesota. Check out the eye opening piece by MPR's Curtis Gilbert and Paul Tosto on what (bad) options you may face if stuck in your car as a tornado approaches.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Simonson MPR News

Heres' an excerpt:

MINNEAPOLIS -- You're stuck in Minneapolis rush hour traffic on Interstate 94, near the Lowry Hill Tunnel. A thunderstorm spins out a tornado nearby. What can you do?

Not much. You're now among the most vulnerable people in a tornado. There are no good options.

Traffic's gridlocked, so you can't drive away. Hide under an overpass? It's a trap of swirling wind and debris. Hit the ditch immediately? That's what you were taught, but many experts believe that advice is more likely to get you hurt or killed.

In this situation, your best chance is to stop, stay in your car, duck below the dash -- and hope.

"When you have a big, vicious tornado moving across an area and traffic is just bumper to bumper -- that's probably one of the big scenarios that we really worry about," said Todd Krause, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Chanhassen.

"I don't know that there's really a safe way to be out there on the highway."

You may recall we've talked about this on my weather chats on MPR in the last year. Damage surveys found that cars and trucks can be potentially "survivable" options in "weaker" EF0 to EF2 tornadoes. In stronger tornadoes... cars and trucks can be crushed like a twisted metal ball, or wrapped around tree trunks. It's just plain hard to give anyone caught outdoors or in a car good advice on how to survive and EF3 or stronger tornado. The sad fact is not many people live to tell how they survived.

We touched on this Monday during my chat with KARE's Belinda Jensen and Kerri Miller on The Daily Circuit on MPR. You can listen below.

FYI, Belinda is a joy to work with and the whole news staff at KARE11 has been fantastic on this story.

Look for more today from MPR News and KARE11.

PH