New way to get warnings

  An exciting new era in weather warnings starts in June. Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) will begin next month. WEA are emergency messages sent by authorized government alerting authorities through your mobile carrier. Government partners include local and state public safety agencies, FEMA, the FCC, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Weather Service. Detailed information can be found on the Central Region NWS site: WEA warnings .

  Not all wireless devices support WEA. As explained in FAQ #10 on the Central Region link above, many mobile devices, especially older ones, are not WEA-capable. When you buy a new mobile device, it probably will be able to receive WEA messages. For information about which mobile devices are WEA-capable, please visit http://www.ctia.org/wea or contact your wireless carrier. In the coming months, don’t assume that there is no warning in your area just because it doesn’t appear on your mobile phone. Looking ahead, I'm glad that wireless carriers plan to make new phones WEA compatible.

  It’s great that timely warnings will get to more people. This new service is a nice addition to warning info that's now delivered by weather radio, TV, commercial radio, internet sites and other phone apps.

Historic May downpours

  About one week ago, a friend of mine said “we need some rain to keep the dust down”. We sure don’t need any more rain right now! We saw buckets of rain Wednesday evening through Thursday afternoon. At MSP airport, .81” fell Wednesday evening, and the tally yesterday was 2.58”, which is a new record rainfall total for May 24th. The two-day total at MSP airport was 3.39 inches. That is more than our average monthly total for May of 3.24”. A month’s worth of rain in about 24 hours!.

  The generous rains have lifted lake levels, and Minnehaha Creek has reappeared. On Wednesday morning, the creek was barely flowing. Here’s how it looked today, near the Burwell House in Minnetonka:

                                 (Left-click on photos for a larger image)

  Our rainfall at MSP now stands at 8.18” this month, enough to make this the second-rainiest May in Twin Cities history. Here is an updated list of our rainiest Mays, based on data posted on the Minnesota State Climatology Office web site ( Climate ):

Rank Rainfall Year

---- -------- ----

 1.  10.33....1906

 2.   8.18....2012

 3.   8.14....1908

 4.   8.03....1962

 5.   7.87....1933

 6.   7.86....1965

 7.   7.18....1879

 8.   6.97....1938

 9.   6.97....1916 

10.   6.78....1942

  We have a shot at the May rainfall record. Occasional showers and thunderstorms are expected this weekend, but we should have some dry time for outdoor fun too.

Tornado anniversary

  Today is the one-year anniversary of the tornado that moved through portions of north Minneapolis. A total of eleven tornadoes hit eastern Minnesota, western Wisconsin, and northeastern Iowa that Sunday afternoon. I was on duty, and was part of the continuous live TV coverage and newscasts that followed. The tornado that hit north Minneapolis caused one fatality, demolished some houses and uprooted many trees:

(Photos courtesy of the Twin Cities NWS storm survey team. Left-click
 on photo for a larger image)

  A nice summary of the tornadoes can be found at the Twin Cities NWS site:  May 2011 tornadoes .

  On that same day, a gigantic EF-5 tornado leveled a major portion of Joplin, MO. The death toll in Joplin was 158, making that the single deadliest U.S. tornado since 1947. 

  Covering the local tornadoes last year, I was reminded of several things. First, too many people seem to rely on sirens for weather warnings. Sirens were never meant to warn people who are indoors. If you hear a siren, take cover and check out the warning details, but don’t rely on sirens alone for warnings. The power may be out (not all sirens have battery power) or someone may have failed to activate the siren. Weather radio, some TV and radio stations, the internet and phone apps are good sources of weather warning information. I remember one person last May saying “the siren stopped, so I went outside to look around”. Not a good idea. Warnings typically last 20 to 40 minutes, but sirens stop after a few minutes…sounding the sirens for 20+ minutes could wear them out or drain their batteries.
  Weather warnings have improved a lot in the past decade, but we still have to be weather aware and weather savvy. An inexpensive weather radio could save your life.

A look at June

  We hit 83 degrees today in the Twin Cities, and tomorrow will be even warmer. May is running several degrees above normal, but we're getting used to warm weather...every month of 2012 has been warmer than normal in the Twin Cities.

  Let’s look ahead. The June temperature outlook doesn’t show a trend for either cool or warm temperatures. Here’s the outlook, from the Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service:

  You can see that the best chance of above normal temperatures is over the southern states, with the upper midwest in the “EC” area. Put simply, NWS forecasters think that we have equal chances of above normal or below normal temperatures in June. I’m hoping for a lot of warm, sun-splashed days in June...great for boating and swimming!

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Plenty of rain!

   What a difference a week makes! Bouts of heavy rain Thursday through Sunday dropped an impressive 3.45 inches at MSP airport. Because of the downpours, Minnehaha Creek has swollen, and a lot of water is rushing over Minnehaha Falls.

   Here’s how it looked this (Sunday) afternoon:

                            (You can left-click on the photo for a larger view)

  Compare that to this photo, taken last Wednesday:

  Heavy rains fell over much of central and southern Minnesota the past four days. We’ve gone from drought to soggy lawns and farm fields. Now we’re looking for some dry days, and some sunshine would be nice too.

Welcome rain

   It’s great to finally see some generous rains. About three-quarters of an inch fell at MSP airport late Tuesday evening, and we saw another three-quarters of an inch late this morning. Rain is very welcome, after our incredibly dry autumn Sep-Nov 2011 , and below-normal winter snowfall. 

   I was at Minnehaha Falls yesterday, and I noticed much less water flowing though Minnehaha Creek compared to this time last year. We don’t have the massive plume of water coming over the falls that we saw one year ago. It’s still a beautiful sight, and I wasn’t the only one taking photos of Minnehaha Falls yesterday afternoon:

                            (You can left-click on the photo for a larger view)

   Additional rain will boost creek flows and lake levels around our area. Many Minnesota farmers are hoping for rain too…it will help recharge the soil moisture ahead of the growing season.