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| Unprecedented May heat has touched off large forest fires in northern Minnesota. Camps and other structures have reportedly been destroyed |
Grand Forks, North Dakota turned "cooler" Monday with a high of 97 degrees, accompanied by wind gusts of 46 mph. On Sunday, Grand Forks reached 99.
Other readings Monday included 95 in Minot and Dickinson, North Dakota. International Falls, Minnesota, on Monday had a high of 90 degrees and a low of 70.
That minimum temperature of 70 was four degrees warmer than any other low temperature recorded there in May.
The weirdly hot, dry weather has sparked raging wildfires in northern Minnesota, burning through forests, camps and other structures.
There's never been close to this much heat in the northern Plains this time of year. Until now. Absolutely incredible.
The unprecedented heat can't continue up in the Dakotas forever. Back in Grand Forks, they're expecting more record highs with a 95 forecast today and 92 Wednesday. By the end of the week, it's back to reality, with a high of 49 forecast for the North Dakota city on Saturday.
The end of the gobsmacking heat in the northern Plains represents an upcoming change in the national weather pattern that will keep the northern half of the United States cool and parts of the South broiling.
The heat won't go away. It'll just be squashed down into the southern United States. As noted yesterday, Texas will have record heat this week, which will spread into other states like Louisiana and Oklahoma by Wednesday.
Meanwhile, high pressure in Canada will eventually push the jet stream further south into a generally west to east pattern across the central and northern United States.
This will create a sharp contrast between steamy heat in the south and cool, unsettled weather to the north, practically coast to coast.
Combine that contrast with storm systems riding that west to east jet stream and you're going to get outbreaks of severe weather and tornadoes in the Plains and Midwest.
Starting tomorrow and probably continuing for a week or more, you'll hear of tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings popping up in various places, depending on where the storm of the day and weather fronts are.
This new pattern looks like it could last until near the end of the month.
VERMONT EFFECTS
We're still going to have a warm week here in Vermont, as the new weather pattern will take time to take hold here.
Parts of Vermont just can't get through as many as two days without rain, as unexpected sprinkles hit parts of the state Monday.
A disturbance zipped through the Northeast Kingdom yesterday. While most of us enjoyed sunshine and temperatures in the 70s to around 80, the Northeast Kingdom held in the 60s under clouds and light showers.
We're mostly back to the sunshine and warm temperatures statewide today and tomorrow. At least it will be pleasantly warm, as the Northern Plains heat wave is not heading in our direction.
We introduce a slight chance of showers Thursday, and they become likely Friday and Saturday. Those showers might last into Sunday as well. I don't expect a super soaker like last weekend, but chances are we'll get a decent amount rain.
It will still be warm and bit humid toward the end of the week, so that might introduce thunderstorms. It's unclear at this point how widespread or intense they will be. There won't be widespread severe storm outbreaks here like in the Midwest, but if things pull together right, there might be a couple strong ones thrown in. We'll see.
After Saturday, though, it looks like we'll need to wait quite awhile for more summer like weather in the Green Mountain State. Don't get me wrong, it won't turn frigid after this balmy week. But it won't be beach weather, either.
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