I happen to live in the Upper Mississippi drainage basin, and the heavy rain here is only adding to the woes downstream. Also, signs have been set up on Interstate 90 giving directions for those taking the detour from Interstate 29, which is closed due to flooding.

Local news is marking the first anniversary of last year's tornado outbreak. 48 tornadoes hit Minnesota in the largest single-day outbreak that year (much smaller than the outbreaks earlier this spring). Eight tornadoes hit in or near my parents' hometown, including an EF-4 which killed one person.

Another area hit by many twisters that day was northwest Minnesota, where another EF-4 killed a man who saved his daughter's life by covering her with his own body.

It's hot and humid here again today, and severe weather - hopefully nothing like those storms - is possible tonight.

It's been a few days, so...

Happy Solstice, everyone! At 1216 local time (1716 GMT) today, the sun reached the northernmost spot in its annual journey, appearing overhead as seen from the Tropic of Cancer. Summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the Southern.

Our area observed the day with torrential rains that flooded some city streets, winds that knocked down some trees and branches (including several branches in our front yard), and an afternoon of several radar-indicated tornado warnings in the Twin Cities area - one not far away. Alas, I didn't even see the wall cloud, but none of the funnels appear to have touched down, so that's good.

EDIT: Local news is now reporting tornado touchdowns in the northern suburbs, including the one in which I live. So far it appears that while there are people without power and some trees that have fallen on houses and other buildings, no injuries have been reported. I suspect it will be an EF-0 or EF-1.

More severe storms are called for tonight and tomorrow; by this weekend it should be a lot more pleasant outside.

Yes, stargazer, summer is here officially. Interesting that our June gloom cooler temeratures ended yesterday with a 93.7F/34.3C high and today's temperature went up to 95.4F/35.2C. And tomorrow it's going up even higher.

Air conditioner is on and my electric bill will also being going up for this month.

It is. really. hot. here. Like, 100 or almost there. And, of course, very sunny.

~Riella

100, Ithilwen? That's just way too hot. Glad it's rare here.

And after a few days around 100F earlier this month, the last week has been cloudy, wet, and cool (highs only around 60F/15C). Sure saves on the cooling bill!

It finally cleared up last evening, and I enjoyed 2 consecutive ISS passes - the first evening ones since early May.

The latter one - a spectacular one passing nearly overhead - had an added bonus. Thanks to all the trees in our yard, I sometimes have to venture out into the street to see parts of the sky. Our street isn't very busy at midnight, though at least one car always seems to go by no matter when I try stargazing.

Just as the space station had faded out, 2 cars came down the street. I was in our front yard, near the curb at the time. They pulled over, and I realized they were police cars! One turned on his spotlight but didn't point it directly at me; the officer got out and asked me my name and where I lived. Satisfied with my answers, they left. It'll make an interesting entry in the log.

In other astronomical news, I found this fascinating article yesterday:

Is the Sunpot Cycle About to Stop?

It's rather technical but the upshot is that in a press conference earlier this month some solar scientists presented evidence that the 11-year sunspot cycle - a standard for centuries - may be about to undergo a dramatic change. It wouldn't be the first time the sun has altered this pattern; it was nearly free of spots from about 1645 to 1715, a time corresponding to "The Little Ice Age" in Europe.

Does this matter to the average person on the street? Perhaps. The sun is a lot more active, with solar flares and storms, during periods of sunspot maximum. This can interfere with earth's communication satellites and power grids (in March 1989 a solar storm caused a regional blackout in Quebec). A quiet sun means less likelihood of big solar storms disrupting earth's power grid.

I spent the previous two weeks in Colorado where the weather was gorgeous. Most days the temps were in the 80's. Then we had a major quick cold front come through that left about 6 inches of snow in the high country (over 10,000 feet). Below 10,000 feet we got some heafty rain. Coloradans were gratefull for the cold because of imminent flooding. While the Eastern Plains were left dry all winter (got a bunch of rain lately) the high country got about 300% of their annual snowpack. And it's melting fast with a lot more to go.

Here in El Paso though it has been absolutely miserable. We left for Colorado after two of 100+ degree days, it stayed above 100 while we were gone and we got back to 106 and 108 degrees. And not a drop of moisture in sight. We have gotten at best 1/4 of an inch of moisture since October. We set an all time record of 120 days without even a trace and that was snapped only by a trace. As a result El Paso County, Texas, (and many others I assume) has banned all fireworks including sparklers everywhere except at designated firework shows set up by liscened pyrotechnitions. It's not pretty here right now.

*melts just reading Fencer's post*

I'd be glad to send you some of our excess moisture...though everything here is so green and lush now.

Anyone remember the old Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson?

It was so hot today...

How hot was it?

Not as hot as in El Paso - and it's been so wet here that we've had reminders of how bad the mosquitoes are about to get - but it did reach 96F/36C here today, but the killer was the humidity. With a dewpoint of 75F/24C, it's like a sauna out there. The heat index reached 107F/42C. That's just an ordinary day in some parts of the country, but here that's just...wrong.

Give me snow any day...which reminds me: only 73 days until the start of the possible snow season.

Tomorrow will be more of the same, as temps tonight probably won't go much below 80F/27C due to the humidity. In fact, even at local midnight the heat index is still 90F/32C. Yuck.

That is one advantage we have: no humidity. We are so bone dry it is scary. But everyone here is panicked about wildfire and for good reason. Two states just now have broken all-time records in wildfire size. Arizona already broke it and the one right by Los Alamos, New Mexico will break it momentarily. We had one by White Sands National Park (and Missle Range) burn a good size of acrage due to a live-amunition military exercise. It's not pretty but we are making due.

More heat in where I live this weekend. It is supposed to reach 100F/37.8C today and continue at that level and above for the next 3 days.

Then it cools down to the mid to upper 90's. Humidity levels are low; right now at 14%. So a hot and dry Fourth of July for this part of Southern California.

Here it's been really hot. Like... close to a hundred. We put blankets on the windows to keep the sun out. We don't have air conditioning.

~Riella

I am shocked no one has posted about this yet. Remember the story I told you about how I witnessed a wall of dirt on a scale of the one seen in Hidalgo? A slightly bigger one hit Phoenix last night. Here is the Denver Post report along with a video.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_18417411

I've not see one of that size per say but I've been through plenty of storms just like it. It truly is clear as a perfect sunny day on one side and pure dirt on the other.

Yes, we saw it on last night's news. I thought it was the sort of thing that would look good on film to show the effects of the Deplorable Word, quite frankly. I hope there was no damage done, was there?

Down Under in the freezer it has been quite a chilly winter. Flying over the Snowy Mountains we saw they actually had quite decent snowcaps, the weather is wild and windy, and there has even been a blizzard in the Blue Mountains, an hour's drive from Sydney.

Thanks for posting that link, Fencer! I was going to mention it here, but you beat me to it, as I've spent some of the day dealing with car repairs.

There was another report on tonight's evening news. Apparently that dust is the very fine kind, that gets into everything even if windows and doors are closed. There's a picture of a car covered with dust - even though it was in a garage at the time. But there were no reports of real damage.

Snow sounds loverly right now, wagga! Ours is still a couple months away.

One astronomical note: Atlantis is scheduled to lift off Friday on the last shuttle mission (but weather may force a delay). So this is a last chance to see a shuttle pass by in our night skies. You can get predictions for your site by finding your town's name in the database at www.heavens-above.com. It'll be a starlike object moving across the sky, usually within minutes of the ISS passing by. (It happens that much of July is a poor time for ISS passes in North America, so sighting Atlantis might not be possible either).

That storm was bigger in size than the ones we've seen here in El Paso but the exact same in nature. It is that very fine dust that you have to have vacuum sealed to have just a hope of not getting dirt into it. If you leave a window open in that stuff, you WILL have a sandune in your window sill/room. When you see it coming, close everything up and get to where you want to be for a few hours. And if you have to be out in it, you will get that grit taste in your mouth, even with a bandana over it. It's that nasty. As far as Phoenix went, the worst part was blown over trees (due to 60-70 mph winds) power outages, 0 visibility, and a closed airport.

I live here in Arizona, the storm was visible from our backyard, but we didn't get right in the middle of it.
My cousins patio was covered in a thin layer of dust, they got hit harder then we did, but still nothing really bad.
And you are right FencerforJesus, I've heard no reports on our news about any injures, only some blown down trees. It's very beautiful to look at all the footage, especially because no one was hurt.