Duluth Waterspout Update: Twister makes landfall on Park Point; USA’s warmest “year” ever

EF0 Waterspout turned "tornado" after making landfall on Park Point Thursday

30 to 40 feet path width of Park Point tornado

.18 mile path length on Park Point (about 950 feet)

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Photo By Lucie Amundsen of Duluth

Duluth NWS update: Waterspout makes landfall

The Duluth NWS added detail and new information to an updated the local storm report (LSR) on Thursday's waterspout event.

Additional reports into the Duluth NWS show the waterspout did make landfall on Park Point Thursday. The twister was strong enough to shove a couple of 500 pound floats around.

Here's the update LSR from the Duluth NWS.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...CORRECTED

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DULUTH MN

1242 PM CDT FRI AUG 10 2012

1105 AM WATER SPOUT 5 ESE DULUTH 46.75N 92.01W

08/09/2012 LSZ145 MN FIRE DEPT/RESCUE

WATER SPOUT WAS SPOTTED 2 MILES OFF OF PARK POINT FROM

SKY HARBOR AIRPORT AND WAS MOVING SSW TOWARDS PARK POINT.

THE WATERSPOUT MADE LANDFALL AT PARK POINT NEAR THE

AIRPORT.

1111 AM TORNADO 5 SE DULUTH 46.73N 92.04W

08/09/2012 F0 ST. LOUIS MN AIRPLANE PILOT

A WATERSPOUT MADE LANDFALL ON PARK POINT AND MOVED OVER

THE SKY HARBOR AIRPORT. THERE WAS NO DAMAGE...HOWEVER 2

FLOATS...WEIGHING ABOUT 500 POUNDS EACH...WERE PICKED UP

AND ROTATED. THE TORNADO WAS APPROXIMATELY 30 TO 40 FEET

WIDE AND HAD A PATH LENGHT OF .18 MILE. RATING IS AN EF0

1113 AM WATER SPOUT 5 SE DULUTH 46.72N 92.05W

08/09/2012 ST. LOUIS MN AIRPLANE PILOT

THE WATERSPOUT CONTINUED AFTER PASSING OVER PARK POINT.

IT WAS ON THE WATER FOR .54 MILES BEFORE MAKING LANDFALL

BRIEFLY AT BARKERS ISLAND.

1119 AM TORNADO 5 SE DULUTH 46.72N 92.05W

08/09/2012 F0 DOUGLAS WI PUBLIC

THIS WAS A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN AS THE WATERSPOUT MADE

LANDFALL AGAIN AT BARKERS ISLAND. THERE WAS NO DAMAGE.

Waterspouts are tornadoes over water. They technically become "tornadoes" when they reach land. This baby started over water then crossed Park Point, moved back over water, then made a final "landfall." That makes this a unique "double landfall" waterspout/tornado. Or you might say a "waterspout-tornado-waterspout-tornado."

Wow.

Seeley: Lack of tornadoes in July & Minneota farmes may prosper in USA's drought year

My MPR colleague Mark Seeley has some excellent insight on the July's "tornado drought" and the positive news for most Minnesota farmers as much of Minnesota's corn & soybean crop continue to thrive in our oasis from drought in 2012.

Here's a preview from this week's "Weather Talk:"

Topic: Lack of tornadoes in July

The dominance of heat and lack of rainfall across the USA had a silver lining......fewer severe storms and the smallest number of tornadoes reported in July during the modern era with just 24 nationwide. In fact according to Dr. Harold Brooks of NOAA the USA reported fewer July tornadoes than the Canadian province of Saskatchewan which had plenty of thunderstorms and tornadoes (nearly 30). You can read more about this at the Climate Central web site:

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/us-loses-to-canada-in-july-tornado-competition/

Topic: August bringing a respite from July heat and dryness

So far August has brought more seasonable temperatures to Minnesota, and thankfully moisture for some areas, including portions of some of the 28 Minnesota counties in severe drought status. Through the first ten days Halstad, Itasca State Park, Bemidji, Gull Lake, Cass Lake, Park Rapids, Ottertail, Redwood Falls, Worthington, Albert Lea, Owatonna, and La Crescent have received over 1.50 inches. A few areas have received over 2 inches including Spring Grove, Zumbrota, Lamberton, Morris, and Wheaton. Caledonia in Houston County already reports over 3 inches. August 4-5 brought the first back to back days with below normal temperatures since late June, and August 10th brought the coldest temperatures (39 F at Crane Lake, Big Fork, and Orr) and lowest dewpoints since June 13th.

For the first time in many months the NOAA Climate Prediction Center is forecasting a persistent spell of cooler and wetter than normal weather for Minnesota during the mid-August period. This will continue to bring welcome relief to Minnesota agriculture, though it may be too late to boost corn yields. It will likely help soybeans, pasture grasses, and alfalfa fields.

Topic: Bullet points from Farmfest 2012

-Severe drought prevails in 28 Minnesota counties, yet just 16 percent of the corn crop is in poor to very poor condition, and just 13 percent of soybeans, relatively small percentages when compared to the crop conditions in so many other states (IL, IA, MO, IN)

-Drought has pushed major commodity prices high (corn $8.29/bu, soybean $16.31/bu) and they may go higher yet. This may lead to higher food prices and higher costs for livestock feeding as the supply chain in these crops is suppressed by lower yield estimates.

-Congress left for recess with many pieces of legislation unsettled, including the new Farm Bill and other agricultural legislation.

-August weather is expected to bring some relief from stress in Minnesota's crops (with cooler and wetter conditions), but the same relief from the weather pattern may not prevail in other Midwestern states to the south.

-This is the 8th consecutive summer that severe drought has appeared somewhere on the Minnesota landscape (2005-2012), a persistence pattern than has not appeared since the Dust Bowl Era of the 1930s.

NOAA: Warmest 12 moths ever recorded in USA...again

One additional detail notable from this week's NOAA July climate summary is that the past 12 months were (again) the warmest ever recorded in the USA.

Here are the details from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.

•The August 2011-July 2012 period was the warmest 12-month period of any 12-months on record for the contiguous U.S., narrowly surpassing the record broken last month for the July 2011-June 2012 period by 0.07°F. The nationally averaged temperature of 56.1°F was 3.3°F above the long term average. Except Washington, which was near average, every state across the contiguous U.S. had warmer than average temperatures for the period.

Source: NOAA/NCDC

Looking at the chart above shows the remarkable run of heat the USA is on. The past 4 months have all ended the warmest "year" on record in the USA. The 14 warmest "12 month periods" have all occurred since 2000. That's simply incredible, and extremely improbable in a "random" system.

It's been 27 years since the last cooler than average month globally. February 1985 was the last month cooler than the 20th century global average.

The only reasonable way to look at these trends is to conclude something is forcing our climate system in an unstoppably warmer direction. All the best science says it's the rapid increase and accumulation of human produced greenhouse gasses.

You change the chemical composition of our atmosphere, and you increase the heat trapping ability of the atmosphere.

People have turned this into complicated politics. It's really just simple chemistry.

PH