Weathermania!

On my way to my kid’s soccer practice the radio broadcast was paused for a tornado warning in NE Anoka Cty.  15 min later we were practicing in the sun in southern Anoka County.

Thank God they no longer put warnings out for full counties when the threat is miles away.

On my way to my kid’s soccer practice the radio broadcast was paused for a tornado warning in NE Anoka Cty. 15 min later we were practicing in the sun in southern Anoka County. Thank God they no longer put warnings out for full counties when the threat is miles away.

I was coming home from work in Plymouth to Minnetonka, and got 2 radio warnings about Western WI and some other rather northern or southern counties, nowhere near me. Rained HARD in my area this morning, but then, nothing. A sprinkle and some sun (KFAN, 97, 102.5, and IIRC 104.1 had the warnings). Humid AF, though.

We got all of two drops of rain on my car all yesterday. Humid, hot, windy most of the day.

Storms popped up about one mile east of here and went on to pummel Lakeville and Red Wing thereafter.

Then the cold front came through and it has been beautiful since.

We got all of two drops of rain on my car all yesterday. Humid, hot, windy most of the day. Storms popped up about one mile east of here and went on to pummel Lakeville and Red Wing thereafter. Then the cold front came through and it has been beautiful since.

My part of Rosemount/Lakeville (Valley Park) got about 2 stints of 15 seconds of downpour and that's it. Though very humid, hot and windy.

Heavy rain and cloud-to-ground lightning bolts yesterday morning chased me off the golf course in NW suburbs and made it very difficult to see on the way home. More storms predicted for tomorrow evening.

I saw a tweet yesterday from a Chisago County Sheriff's Deputy holding hailstone the size of a large grapefruit. IIRC they called it volleyball sized.

After a crappy spring, finally got out into the field yesterday. The talking weather heads said I would have until 4pm today to get something done. It started to rain at 9am, enough to make it too wet to plant. Now at 4pm, it is a monsoon. I bet we have at least 2+ inches of rain so far, with more expected on Thursday. I guess I'm done for another week...

The roofing inspector came to my house at 10:00 this morning and told me i had sufficient damage to get a new roof. Since then I've been hit twice more with hail ranging from nickle to half dollar size. I've never seen anything like this.

Sirens going off in Plymouth and heavy wind.

Long siren still sounding --  hopefully no damage in our area, or anywhere for that matter.

Just blew through Rosemount/Lakeville… Mother Nature can be a beast!!!

We are under a tornado warning.  Electricity went out briefly, which doesn’t happen in our neighborhood. Sounds like hail is starting.  Sirens are blaring.

I don’t want another insurance claim.

Total rainfall 3.7 inches today.

Looks like I mostly dodged the worst of this storm at my house in western Woodbury.  Rained buckets and a little pea size hail, but not much wind at all.

We are under a tornado warning. Electricity went out briefly, which doesn’t happen in our neighborhood. Sounds like hail is starting. Sirens are blaring. I don’t want another insurance claim.

Got the sirens at my place, some small hail, major lightning, some low rumbles of thunder (nothing apartmentt-shaking). Even got a phone alert about "Take Cover, sh*t's going down! (or similar 😉 )

Once it started, I turned off all the lights and just basked in the entertainment of a good storm.

Long siren still sounding — hopefully no damage in our area, or anywhere for that matter.

We got it too - naturally right after we got our 3 year old to sleep.   We had tons of rain but almost no wind.

While we were in the basement they said on WCCO that downtown Minneapolis recorded rain at one point at a rate of 8" per hour

That was a fiesty one.

Much ado about nothing.

Cloud to cloud lightning with no boom.  A little rain and no real wind.  A few ticks of pea sized hail on the window.

At least we have no repairs to make.

Just had a burst of thunder that felt more like a bomb. Gave the house a real good shake.

Nice light show, some high winds and heavy rain for a bit. Also about 7 minutes of steady hail, with some dime to quarter size mixed in, but no apparent damage.

Just drove straight thru it coming back from an event in Eau Claire on 94. At least 20 cars and semis pulled over and had to slow down to 20MPH for bit. Crazy light show with the whole sky lit up like it was daytime a couple times. Also saw and heard a lightning strike almost simultaneously.

Just drove straight thru it coming back from an event in Eau Claire on 94. At least 20 cars and semis pulled over and had to slow down to 20MPH for bit. Crazy light show with the whole sky lit up like it was daytime a couple times. Also saw and heard a lightning strike almost simultaneously.

The lightning was (IMO) the show tonight. It was SO constant.

Bigbeer wrote:

Just drove straight thru it coming back from an event in Eau Claire on 94. At least 20 cars and semis pulled over and had to slow down to 20MPH for bit. Crazy light show with the whole sky lit up like it was daytime a couple times. Also saw and heard a lightning strike almost simultaneously.

The lightning was (IMO) the show tonight. It was SO constant.

it filled the whole sky and was popping all around us like being at a concert

After it looked like things were going to be calmer than forecasted sh&t got real around 7:00 in Mankato.  Those winds were no joke at the head of the storm, thank goodness they only lasted a couple minutes.  They turned the sirens on for the winds which I don't blame the county for that.  The storm really wasn't much, some good rain with lightning and thunder but I didn't hear any hail.

A lot of areas around my West Mankato neighborhood lost electricity and a few towns around did as well.  I drove around the neighborhood on my way into work this morning and I only saw a few small branches on the ground, that is surprising.

My normally overly anxious dog fared really good.  She is a very anxious dog already and storms usually put her over the top but she did really well.

This would suck… Thank goodness both residents and pets are all safe.

We had barely any wind but my neighbors 2 blocks over had roofs blown off.  Incredibly localized

We had barely any wind but my neighbors 2 blocks over had roofs blown off. Incredibly localized

So that’s in Blaine/Ham Lake area?

The new lake in one of my fields. It covers about 25 acres and the water in the ditch is about to the road. We now have had 5.5 inches of rain in the last week with more expected tonight.

That sucks.  Yeah, the weather doesn't look friendly for over by your way tonight.

2.21 inches of rain in SSP.  For all of the severe weather warnings that were announced it never really seemed that severe here

Bertogliat wrote:

We had barely any wind but my neighbors 2 blocks over had roofs blown off. Incredibly localized

So that’s in Blaine/Ham Lake area?

Yes.  Blaine

I suspect there were some embedded pieces that were worse that areas very near by.  Watching on the radar application I use that has some high-end analysis tools, I was seeing the intense rotation that the Weather Service was using to generate the Tornado warnings.  I also saw multiple reports from inside the metro area for 50+ MPH winds and damage.

I suspect there were some embedded pieces that were worse that areas very near by. Watching on the radar application I use that has some high-end analysis tools, I was seeing the intense rotation that the Weather Service was using to generate the Tornado warnings. I also saw multiple reports from inside the metro area for 50+ MPH winds and damage.

What weather apps do you use?

What weather apps do you recommend for the amateurs?

Steve MN wrote:

I suspect there were some embedded pieces that were worse that areas very near by. Watching on the radar application I use that has some high-end analysis tools, I was seeing the intense rotation that the Weather Service was using to generate the Tornado warnings. I also saw multiple reports from inside the metro area for 50+ MPH winds and damage.

What weather apps do you use? What weather apps do you recommend for the amateurs?

For basic weather checking, WeatherUnderground.com on my computer, and the WeatherNation app on my phone.

For the "real" weather watching I do as a spotter/chaser (been a long time since I actively chased anything) I use RadarScope on my phone.  This is either $10 or $20.  For most purposes, this is has most of the tools I'd want, with the ability to add the different layers, look at different radar products (reflectivity which is what you see normally, base velocity for the wind speeds, and a few others).

For the more serious work on my computers, I use GRLevel2Analyst.  This is about as close as you can get to being in a Weather Service office looking at their screens directly.  This is a $250 application, and is massive overkill for the vast majority of people.  http://www.grlevelx.com/gr2analyst_3/

For the "hobbyist" weather watcher that's looking for more than the true basics, GRLevel3 comes in at $80, and has some really nice tools as well, allowing a lot more flexibility than websites that are out there.  I haven't actually tried the newer versions of this out, so it's been many years since I worked with it, but he has been improving this as well.  http://www.grlevelx.com/grlevel3_2/

The "Level2" and "Level3" in those names are what the radar data is called.  The raw feed from the antenna is Level 1 (nobody other than technicians working on maintaining the radar sets uses this).  Level 2 is the individual products that the radar provides, reflectivity, velocity, and a few other things, and is at a higher resolution than Level 3 data.  Level 3 is what you see on the TV, almost any website/weather app/etc.  This is highly processed already to make it accessible for most people.  The Level 2 data is good for people like myself that are very into looking at the details, and allows applications like GRLevel2 to run further analysis on subsets of the data to show details that the composite views from Level 3 don't allow.

The other thing I use regularly is the Storm Prediction Center website:  https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products    This has severe weather forecasts going out several days.  It takes some getting accustomed to in order to understand how the forecasts are written, as they're meant for weather professionals, not the general public, for the most part.

I am not a fan of severe weather during this time of year so I glue myself to a couple websites and apps to watch what is coming.  I use Weather Underground both on my computer and phone, it has a decent radar and the forecast is pretty darn good.  I do have the Storm Prediction Center also bookmarked on my computer and have for several years.  I have learned a little bit of their language to understand when they post the discussions about possible watches.  There is a lot of good information on there when you understand a little of it.

I am not a fan of severe weather during this time of year so I glue myself to a couple websites and apps to watch what is coming. I use Weather Underground both on my computer and phone, it has a decent radar and the forecast is pretty darn good. I do have the Storm Prediction Center also bookmarked on my computer and have for several years. I have learned a little bit of their language to understand when they post the discussions about possible watches. There is a lot of good information on there when you understand a little of it.

To be honest, for the majority of people, those are all you really need.  It does take some time to get a good grip on how the SPC forecasts are written, but once you do, it's really good information.

Turns out the NWS declared the damage was due to a small tornado (EFO).  I am now mad I didn't get to see it.  I would have been able to see it from my windows if I wasn't in the basement with the kids.

I was watching from my back window until the Tornado alerts went off on all of our phones/ipads.  Then I was coaxed into the basement by my wife.

Huge storm blew threw. The worst was 90mph winds. The line of storms stretch from the Iowa border to close to ND border. Worst of it is in NE SD now, but the bottom half is near Marshall and heading towards MSP.

Get ready for round 2 tonight. I think the central (within 494-694 boundaries) will miss it, but outside of that?

Get ready for round 2 tonight. I think the central (within 494-694 boundaries) will miss it, but outside of that?

The part of the storm that was about to hit me fell apart right as it was hitting us. So a big nothing burger and the TS Warning was completely bogus.

The Rube wrote:

Get ready for round 2 tonight. I think the central (within 494-694 boundaries) will miss it, but outside of that?

The part of the storm that was about to hit me fell apart right as it was hitting us. So a big nothing burger and the TS Warning was completely bogus.

I was hearing generally after midnight tonight, so I was a bit surprised at the wind currently.

Lotsa lightning here, heavy drops. A light version of last night.

Mankato missed out on the first round last night, the tail just went north of town.  I guess we got the second storm which was pretty much rain.  It must not have been too exciting because the dog didn't wake me up but must have had some rain since there are plenty of puddles in the neighborhood this morning.

Looking forward to the nice forecast for the next week now.

It’s a great day to open your weather app!

Pick out your favorite cocktail, find some meat to grill, throw on a pair of shorts and get the hell outside!

Hopefully this evening makes up for yesterday.  It was really hot and sticky at around 5pm yesterday.

Can someone ELI5 if we'll be able to see this well in the Twin Cities? And looks like Sunday night, what time?

https://www.startribune.com/moon-goes-blood-red-this-weekend-eclipse-for-the-americas/600173060/

Can someone ELI5 if we’ll be able to see this well in the Twin Cities? And looks like Sunday night, what time? https://www.startribune.com/moon-goes-blood-red-this-weekend-eclipse-for-the-americas/600173060//a >

A lunar eclipse is visible to anyone who can see the moon when it occurs.  It begins at 9:27 PM and lasts several hours.  While it is interesting to watch, a full lunar eclipse is not ‘spectacular’ or rare.  Also, the “blood” term is an exaggeration.  In the 70’s, when there was a lot of air pollution, there were more deep red colors being refracted around the Earth and onto the moon.  It is much more subdued nowadays.  (None-the-less, I will be looking in on it periodically) So, if it’s not cloudy, you will see it.

Kinda what I figured. Basically, go outside and look up. Thanks.

Can someone ELI5 if we’ll be able to see this well in the Twin Cities? And looks like Sunday night, what time? https://www.startribune.com/moon-goes-blood-red-this-weekend-eclipse-for-the-americas/600173060//a >

Lunar eclipse explained at 9:30 of this video.

Yesterday's storm system was a derecho.

https://twitter.com/NWSSiouxFalls/status/1525157043929092100