6:05 PM Monday, July 4, 2022
*A Dense Fog Advisory is in effect until 8 AM Tuesday including the cities of Duluth, Cloquet, Superior, Saginaw, Arnold, French River, Oliver, South Range, Poplar, and Brule.
*Visibility one quarter mile or less in dense fog.
- A brief warmup near Lake Superior Tuesday (highs in the 60s to around 70), but a stronger NE wind and much cooler temps return Wednesday.
- Dense fog near Lake Superior tonight into mid-morning Tuesday. Fog could return Tuesday night and Wednesday.
- No heat waves in sight for the Northland with generally near normal to below normal temperatures into next week. Highs mostly in the 70s, with a few days in the 80s through this weekend.
- Isolated showers (brief downpours) tonight followed by mostly dry weather Tuesday through Saturday.
A perfect recipe for very cool temperatures near Lake Superior on this Fourth of July 2022.
Rain cooled air earlier today, combined with a NE wind blowing across Lake Superior which continues to run colder than average at this time of the year all led to a very chilly early July day with temperatures only in the upper 40s at the Duluth Harbor and Superior late this afternoon, with upper 50s on top of the hill at the Duluth Airport.
The lake cooled air extends pretty far to the west and south today especially when you take into account that its early July! Temperatures are in the 60s today from Hibbing to McGregor to Moose Lake, but if you travel farther west and south to the Brainerd Lakes, Hinckley and Hayward areas temperatures climb into the 70s which is where they should be in our area at this time of the year.
Lake Superior average surface water temperature in early July is in the low 50s (period of record 1995-2021)
This year we’re seeing an average water temperature of around 42 degrees in early July which is running very close to the coldest early July water temperature on record which was in 1996 at around 41 degrees.
Several buoys on Lake Superior (farther offshore) are reporting a water temperature of 37 to 38 degrees today, Monday, July 4, 2022.
As I pointed out about a week ago, the fact that the water temperature of Lake Superior continues to run well below average, this is likely going to play a bigger role on keeping temperatures cooler than they typically are this time of the year near Lake Superior, and with Lake Superior running so cool, stronger lake breezes/lake cooled air may be able to penetrate farther inland than they typically do in July. This will certainly be something to keep an eye on over the next few weeks!
A stormy pattern continues the next few days from parts of the Northern Rockies and Northern Plains into southern parts of the Midwest, but the Northland will be too far away from the greatest moisture and instability which means little to no thunderstorm activity in our area through the end of this week the way it looks now.
18z HRRR model simulated radar forecast through 7 PM Tuesday.
Thanks for reading!
Tim
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