Always an exciting time to hear those first rumbles of thunder after a long long long winter! Storms this morning contained occasional cloud to ground lightning strikes, brief downpours along with several reports of small hail, generally around pea sized!
Local Storm Reports from Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Source: https://www.weather.gov/dlh/
11:33 AM: 2 ENE Hovland, MN (Cook County) HAIL — 0.25 inch
11:08 AM: 12 NE Grand Marais, MN (Cook County) HAIL — 0.25 inch
9:44 AM: Gile, WI (Iron County) HAIL — 0.25 inch
9:00 AM: Washburn, WI (Bayfield County) HAIL — 0.25 inch
8:36 AM: 1 ENE Duluth, MN (St. Louis County) HAIL — 0.25 inch
8:27 AM: 2 N West Duluth, MN (St. Louis County) HAIL — 0.25 inch
8:11 AM: 2 NW Duluth, MN (St. Louis County) HAIL — 0.25 inch. Pea size hail covering the ground.
7:50 AM: 1 WSW Maple, WI (Douglas County) HAIL — 0.25 inch
7:50 AM: 1 N Cloquet, MN (Carlton County) HAIL — 0.25 inch. Hail covering the ground.
7:46 AM: Bennett, WI (Douglas County) HAIL — 0.25 inch
7:42 AM: 3 SSW Wentworth, WI (Douglas County) HAIL — 0.25 inch. Pea to slightly larger hail covering the ground.
7:40 AM: Cloquet, MN (Carlton County) HAIL — 0.25 inch. Hail lasted for 2 minutes.
7:40 AM: 4 N Sawyer, MN (Carlton County) HAIL — 0.25 inch
7:38 AM: 2 N Hawthorne, WI (Douglas County) HAIL — 0.25 inch
7:26 AM: 3 SE West Duluth, MN (St. Louis County) HAIL — 0.25 inch
6:50 AM: 6 SW Webb Lake, WI (Burnett County) HAIL — 0.25 inch
Source: https://weather.cod.edu
Here’s how the thunderstorms looked on radar this morning as they developed over east-central Minnesota then lifted toward the east-northeast while additional thunderstorms erupted over the Arrowhead of Minnesota during the mid/late morning hours.
Source: https://weather.cod.edu
Goes-16 infrared satellite loop from Wednesday morning, March 27, 2019.
The first thunderstorms of the year hit parts of the Northland this Wednesday morning thanks to a low level jet, warm and moist air advection, increasing amounts of elevated instability, steep mid level lapse rates and some lift associated with a northeastward moving warm frontal boundary, all those ingredients helped to kick off the first boomers of the spring season this morning.
Source: https://www.spc.noaa.gov
We had a real nice surge of warm air advection in the upper Midwest today with Wednesday afternoon 850mb temperatures as warm as +8 to +10C, but strong cold air advection is underway across the northern Plains late this afternoon, and this will spread farther south/east later tonight into Thursday.
Note: 850mb temperatures are forecast to fall to between -5 and -10C by 7 AM Thursday in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin, and they won’t be recovering at all through the weekend, in fact even colder air is set to move in Saturday-Sunday with 850mb temps of around -15C!
The good news is now that we’re into spring and we have longer days, temperatures won’t be bitterly cold by any means, just a lot cooler compared to what we had on Wednesday.
Daytime highs on Thursday will range from the lower 30s in far northern Minnesota to the low to mid 40s in eastern Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin. Highs on Friday in the 30s to around 40 degrees. Highs Saturday in the mid 20s to mid 30s. Note: Normal highs in late March are generally in the lower 40s, so will be quite a bit below normal especially Saturday and perhaps on Sunday too.
Source: https://www.spc.noaa.gov
Today will likely be the last time Duluth has temperatures in the 50s for the rest of this month thanks to a cooler weather pattern which will be setting up later this week into the weekend.
Note: We average 3 days during the month of March with a high of at least 50 degrees in Duluth, and so far this March we’ve had exactly 3 days in the 50s!
Forecast for Duluth
.Tonight… Breezy. Clear to partly cloudy this evening followed by mostly cloudy skies. Low 28 to 33. Wind west to northwest 15 to 25 mph.
.Thursday… Cooler and breezy. Partly to mostly cloudy. High 40 to 45. Wind northwest 15 to 25 mph.
.Friday… Partly to mostly cloudy. High 35 to 40. Wind west to southwest 10 to 20 mph. Note: A few snow showers or flurries are possible Friday night.
Normal temperatures for March 28
High: 40
Low: 22
Sunrise Thursday: 6:56 AM CDT
Sunset Thursday: 7:32 PM CDT