“A cold spring is kindly, and fills the barn finely” – weather proverb
My new video will be posted in hours – it’s about climate impacts on ocean heat and hurricanes like Harvey.
Meanwhile, I’m waiting for the outer bands of a tropical cyclone to hit us in the upper Midwest…
fortunately have my garden in.
The upper Midwest and Great Lakes have essentially skipped spring this year, leaping from winter to summer.
Only a few weeks ago, ice finally finished melting on Minnesota’s lakes. Now the state is witnessing 100-degree heat. Minneapolis surged to the century mark on Memorial Day, the earliest instance in recorded history. It hit at least 90 degrees on six straight days, a May record.
The experience in Twin Cities, which had its fourth coldest April on record, has been repeated all over the upper Midwest and Great Lakes. Historic heat has followed historic cold.
Gang continues:
As recently as April 18, Madison, Wis., was pasted by seven inches of snow, with highs in the low 30s. From May 26 to 29, it posted four straight 90 degree-days, for the first time on record during the month.
The weather desk of Radiant Solutions, based in Gaithersburg, Md., rounded up a remarkable set of heat milestones established across the region since Friday:
- Chicago set record highs of 97 and 95 degrees Sunday and Monday, only the second time it has endured back-to-back 95 degree days in May on record.
- Milwaukee and Toledo established record highs for May of 95 degrees (Sunday) and 98 degrees (Monday), respectively.
- Omaha and Green Bay, Wis., set record highs on four straight days Friday to Monday.
- Des Moines set record highs on three straight days Saturday to Monday, including its earliest 99-degree reading on record Sunday.
- Muskegon, Mich., hit 96 degrees Tuesday, a monthly record.
Weather.com reported over 1,900 daily heat records were tied or broken across the U.S.
Hah, I’ve been hanging out on the Cat6 blog too much. The first thing I thought of was checking the Sea(!) Surface Temperature on Lake Michigan.
https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/ncast/mswt-36.gif
I’m guessing not hurricane caliber yet.
I seem to recall 25 degrees being stated as minimum SST to start a hurricane or typhoon.
What degree scale?
Obviously Celsius, sorry.