(00:00:00) And good morning. Welcome to midday on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Gary eichten. And today we're coming to you live from the Minnesota State Fair. This is the first day of the fair as usual. It runs through Labor Day and if you come to the fair, make sure you stop by the Minnesota Public Radio Booth. We are located near the corner of Judson and Nelson. We're right across from the river ride and the high diving board. So we're fairly easy to find and it's a good day to find us today is Thrifty day out here great values on Minnesota Public Radio product products and you can enter to win a car twenty thousand dollars toward the vehicle of your choice from Luther automobile dealerships. So give yourself a chance. If you're out at the fair fill out Foreman, who knows you might win yourself a new car to kick off our broadcast here at the fair as he has for the last well at least the last seven years Our Guest this is Our University of Minnesota climatologists and meteorologist Mark Seeley Marcus featured each Friday on our Morning Edition program. And from time to time joins us here on midday to talk about the weather and to take your questions as well. So those of you here in the audience, if you have a question for Mark Seeley about the weather just come up to the microphone here. Don't be shy and we'd like to get your question on the air mark and share his wisdom. Those of you listening on the radio or the web. Give us a call our Twin City area number six five. One two, two seven six thousand 6512276 thousand our toll free number is 1-800-218-4243 detraction Mark has put together his seventh annual state fair weather quiz. So if your game when you ask your question of Mark after he answers he'll ask you a question about the weather. And for those of you this is new now for those of you here in the audience. The fairgrounds if you ask a question take part in the weather quiz Mark has a gift for you valuable gifts life-changing gifts. So don't be shy and if you want to cheat and you're near a computer the weather quiz is on our website, Minnesota Public Radio dot-org. Don't be shy come on up. Ask Mark your whether questions mark, welcome to midday. Thank you Gary. It's a wonderful day as especially after the last six days we've had although I've got to complain, you know, we always like to make, you know Grouch at the weatherman. It was beautiful just like 10 minutes ago. And as soon as we announced that you were going to be on the air here talking about the weather the clouds come in the winds pick up. Well a little ventilation doesn't hurt anything. No, you did. Well though you got rid of the humidity and temperatures have cooled a beautiful date. I think the dew points 20 degrees less than it was earlier in the week. So it feels like natural air conditioner. Well, just to prime the pump here. What kind of goodies are you offering folks who have questions? Well, these are very valuable in my view. And anybody who has an interest in the weather. I brought along today a picture windows books one of our local Publishers and Excelsior. Minnesota has published a new series for children. This would be preschool children to grade for on the whether it's a six book series and there's a series of three that will be awarded to anybody that comes up and asks a question, especially those of you grandparents or parents with small children. You might want to get those there's also the Minnesota conservation volunteer the most recent edition of which has the best article on Minnesota weather of any recent years and that's available there for the people who want to ask a question. I've also got copies of our University of Minnesota extension service CD on backyard composting if you're a gardener and Do your own composting and you want to know how to do it right here in the Minnesota climate, you can take one of those CDs and lastly. I've got the sheet that is all our favorite websites. So those that like to surf the Internet can sample from that cheat and go to all the the fascinating weather and climate sites. So I'm excited about this. It's a you know, I've helped you in the past Gary with these MPR pledged right and in a day like today I get to select what goes out. That's all that's real. Nice. So don't be shy if you've got a question for Mark if you want one of the gifts and I have to say we asked my four-year-old grandson to review the weather books and you know, three thumbs up. You only have to be at 3 so they they go over well and now before we get started here with our first question mark I got to ask about the weather quiz people will be able to make their own judgment as we work our way down the quiz, but this one was supposed to be easy. Year this year still requires pretty much a PhD, although unlike last year's quiz. You did not ask about the Wetzel ingredients method. I remember that one from last year. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, we were talking about winter storms and what you need to forecast a winter storm, but I always Taylor this okay to the IQ of a Gary eichten. So this so this this quiz, I always Taylor things we've talked about on. Midday the last year or things we've talked about on Morning Edition each week actually things that have appeared in these children's books and I do I do try to tailor it and make it fun make it interesting and related to Minnesota. Now the Saving Grace of the weather quiz is you get to guess. Yes, I do give options so you can guess on every Watch multiple choice and we've got among our MP our audience and our MP our listeners over the years. I've learned we've got some awfully good guessers actually. Well, I didn't do very well, but we'll see how well our listeners do again Mark Seeley here. If you're at the fair line up again a nice line of folks already with questions. If you're listening on the radio, give us a call six five one two, two seven six thousand or one eight hundred two, four two two eight two eight. I should point out by the way, unfortunately those of you on the phone we can't offer you a prize because it gets to be a real hassle trying to figure out how to get the prizes to you. But we sure want to get you on the air and let you play the quiz. Let's take a our first fairgoer here with a question. Aye sir. Hi, Mark. Hello. I have an older home and I don't have central air. I have air (00:06:46) conditioning units in the windows. When can I safely take them out and not worry about roasting? (00:06:54) It's funny. I just looked at the weather outlook from the climate Prediction Center through early. September and somebody earlier here had asked me that question. I would leave your are in till about well, maybe at least the 10th of September and I'm not saying that because we're going to go back to 95 degrees or things like that, but it looks to me like we still might have some more of those spells with 70 or 75 degree dew points and I don't know about you but when the dew points that high it doesn't matter to me what the temperature is, I need air conditioning because my body doesn't like it but it looks like we might have a few more little roller coaster rides through those High dew point spell so I would leave it in until at least the 10th of September. Thanks for asking. And what would you like for a price? Well, now the first of all aren't you going to quizzing? Oh I get to ask you a question. I beg your part. Yes. Yeah. Here's one from recent memory. Okay. You were with us this last winter in Minnesota, right? Remember he's back. Okay, this is a this is a short-term memory. What type of weather greeted Central Minnesota residents on Groundhog Day this year a fog be a bright sunny warm day, or see a winter storm with up to 11 inches of snow be be a bright warm sunny day. I wish actually they were getting 11 inches of snow on Groundhog Day this year. So not the best Groundhog Day in the world, but now you're free to go ahead and select a gift. All right, so you're going to (00:08:34) take Are (00:08:37) our guests here is taking a collection of the weather books. Thank you for for smaller kids and for people like many of us who don't know our weather very well. Let's take a caller on the phone Kelly your question, please (00:08:52) yes, good morning. Both of you. I will couple questions. I was wondering first of all what the long-term mom will climate has been like in Minnesota how has been (00:09:02) changing and what types of what's a plant or animal species that we now have may eventually no longer exist in the state and have to go elsewhere and what might we (00:09:15) see from other parts of the country start to move in as our weather has (00:09:20) changed and (00:09:21) my second question deals with good colleges or universities in our region (00:09:27) that are good for those students who want to study (00:09:30) meteorology or climatology and then what type of (00:09:33) classes should they take in high? School in the head back here in little more than a week. All right, let's let's whip through these quickly here. Okay. I'll try boy. Kelly must be a plant by the University news service your first question. Your first question Kelly is what I'm going to talk about right after midday today over at the University of Minnesota stage on Dan Patch Avenue. I'm going to talk about global climate change and what we're seeing in Minnesota, the two most striking changes were seen at least In Our Lifetime our transition to warmer Winters where we're having a much higher frequency of warm Winters Gary than we've had historically and the second change is despite despite. What we went through it Midsummer is we're seeing a wetter climate. In fact all of the recent climate normals, which is what we gauge to describe the climate. We talked about the last 30 years are all upward in terms of our total annual precipitation. We're in a wetter climate then oh at least Couple of generations of minnesotans had seen and this is very disturbing in terms of managing our water resources and things like that. His question was more pertinent to biological systems, like our native vegetation and our maybe our agricultural crops and I think we are making adjustments to that for example, agriculturally. We've seen a lot more tile drainage go in across the state to ensure that our soils aren't saturated in the spring so we can actually get a crop planted and that's really evidence of how wet we've been over the last couple of decades. The second question real quickly is graduate-level climatology study. We offer at the University of Minnesota meteorology study to become a certified meteorologist. You have to go elsewhere. St. Cloud State has a program in the state of Minnesota University of North Dakota Grand Forks has a program Iowa state has a program and University of Wisconsin-Madison has a program. So those are the ones you'd want to 22 if you want to actually go in and become a forecaster if you want to pursue graduate study, we would welcome you and climatology at the University of Minnesota course wise though you really got to Bone up on math and physics and there's no dodging that issue. There's no getting around it or whatever. You just got to grin and bear it and take the appropriate math and physics. It's not just enough to practice throwing darts at a board. Is that right? Well, at least not with the National Weather Service. I don't know there may be some other government whether Services elsewhere that would take you but all right Kelly want to play the quiz solutely. I'll give it a shot. Okay? Okay Kelly. I've got a question from one of the weather books here. What type of cloud forms a Thunderhead producing lightning heavy rain and sometimes hail and your choices are a a cirrus cloud be a cumulonimbus cloud or see a stratus (00:12:33) cloud. I will go with be cumulonimbus. (00:12:38) You're absolutely right. Excellent. Absolutely, right nice going and I hope I answered your question. (00:12:44) Absolutely very thorough like that. Thank you so much. All right. Thanks Kelly. Now (00:12:49) we have some young fans here with a question for Mark. Excellent questions. That's always wanted to know. Yes. That's a that's a great question a rainbow comes after it rains because the atmosphere is full of water vapor and as that water vapor condenses it forms. Tiny little drops fact, the the droplets that compose the clouds. We see are extremely small fact to look at an individual drop from a cloud. Sometimes you have to look under a microscope to see it. But when the Sun's light passes through those little drops it gets spread out and it gets that white light gets spread out into all of the different beautiful colors like the blue on your shirt. Okay, or red or yellow or green and that's what we see from a rainbow. And sometimes we see that we don't necessarily have to have any clouds around. Sometimes we can see rainbows even without clouds. Most of the time it's with lots of water vapor and lots of water droplets in the atmosphere. Can I ask you a question? Okay. Have you got one tough enough for this young? Let me see. Let me see if I've got one. Okay, here's one where you can you can fill in the blank, okay? If there is a white halo around the Sun or the Moon, it will frost soon snow soon (00:14:27) or rain soon. (00:14:33) No, sir. Well, that's a good guess but most of the time it'll rain soon. (00:14:37) Huh? Just what we were talking (00:14:39) about. Wait a minute. Okay. Wait a minute. Are you (00:14:42) sure about that Mark? Yeah. Yeah (00:14:44) because I thought I was cheating here. I was trying to help this you I'm sorry. Well, you get it you get two prizes because you've got the metis trail help yourself. (00:14:54) Thank you. What's your name? What was your name? Again? (00:14:56) Grady Grady. Thank you for asking Grady. Oh boy. I've got this cheat sheet and I still get it wrong. Oh, well, let's go back to the phones. Another question for let me before we do that. Now I've asked you this before but for people who are planning ahead historically, what are the best weather days out here at the fairmark the leader the leader days of the fair have a reduced probability for precipitation. It's actually the early days of the fair that climatologically You get rainfall about 38 to 40 percent of the time but as you get towards that Labor Day weekend, it tails off slightly. And so that's from a rain standpoint from the standpoint of the temperature. It also works a little bit that way in that over the twelve days of the fair normally climatologically were declining slightly in temperature. Although I would not trade the temperature of today's date for any other day. This might be the best day to come to the fair today how it is beautiful out here. Okay, Scott your question for Mark. Scott you let us hello. Yes. You're on the air. (00:16:17) Forecast the weather man saying about the Halloween blizzard. Well, that really wasn't a blizzard. I've been in blizzards before and that was not a blizzard. That was just a heavy snowstorm. And when was the last time we did have a blizzard, I believe it was 77. (00:16:33) Well, that's a good question. Well, assuming our National Weather Service issues a blizzard warning with the appropriate criteria, which of course is heavy snow declining visibility dangerous wind chill, etc. Etc wins over 35 miles an hour. We've had more recent blizzards. Now the most recent winter where we had very frequent and significant blizzards was the winter of 96 97 Gary that was the winner. Just preceding the grand floods of 1997 and I believe our own local National Weather Service Office in Chanhassen that winter issued. I believe it was 12 separate blizzard warnings that Winners so we had some very very nasty conditions. I think we measured wind chills even under the new system. We measured wind chills into the - 60s during that particular. Their winter has to the absolute most recent one. I can't honestly remember I'm sorry Scott, but I know we've had some more recent than the 1970s Scott you I want to answer a question in the weather quiz. (00:17:45) Sure. I'll give it a try great. I'll ask you a severe (00:17:49) weather question Scott and this is just a straight true or false. Minnesota reported more tornadoes than Oklahoma last year through absolutely right one of the rare cases one of the rare cases where we did have more tornado touchdowns in the state of Minnesota than Oklahoma and we all know that historically Oklahoma and Texas typically report the most occurrences of tornadoes year to year but last year was a bit unusual and I might add to that our tornado numbers this year. I think so far we've had 20 Maybe between 25 and 30 tornadoes reported by our Chanhassen office. So far this year Gary, although it's been a quiet period recent got to say I thought we were except for the poor folks at Buffalo Lake I let we were pretty free of severe weather this year. We all met in June I think are going to be recollected as the months where we had all the severe weather in 2003 because we really had abundant severe weather episodes in the months of May and June this year. Hmm and am I wrong before we get back to our next week. Am I wrong in saying that if you if you forget about the fact we probably didn't get enough (00:19:07) rain (00:19:08) and if you forget about what the weather the past week when it's been so hot and humid has this been like the nicest summer in history. It's just been glorious. Well we have had again if we discount the last six days from a temperature standpoint, we have had a very favorable summer in terms of (00:19:29) For (00:19:30) we've had generally lower dew points and generally lower temperatures even as we stand now, we have not yet achieved the average number of 90 degree days that we would have in a summer. We're still falling short of that but your seems nice. Okay, we have another young Mark Sealy fan here with a question. Where does the rain come from? Well, this gives me a wonderful opportunity to dispel a myth in Minnesota there as I told the last young gentleman that came up to the microphone. The rain is really produced by all the water vapor in the air. Okay, that's water that's been evaporated. Maybe it's been evaporated from Lake Mille Lacs, or maybe it's been evaporated from the Pacific Ocean. Or maybe it's come out of a plant leaf. Maybe a plant leaf in your backyard that release some water vapor into the atmosphere that water vapor Rises, it rises and Rises and Rises and the temperature finally is cold enough up way above the ground that it condenses out into water droplets and then they get bigger and bigger and bigger and finally they fall as precipitation or rain fall, but what we think in Minnesota is that most of our water vapor that turns into precipitation comes from the For Mexico, and there's been multiple generations of minnesotans that have thought this that that's where most of our precipitation comes from. But recent Studies have shown that we get just as much or more from the Pacific Ocean which is over 2,000 miles away, but it eventually makes it here and form some of the clouds and we get precipitation from water vapor off the Pacific Ocean as well. Now, can I ask you a question? Okay, I have the answer sheet here in my in front of me this time. Okay, just in case I'm going to ask what number is that Mark? I'm going to ask number 14 number 14 a true/false question. Okay on April 9th this spring okay back this spring Benson Minnesota. That's one of our towns in, Minnesota. Was more desert-like. than Tucson, Arizona true or false You're absolutely right. (00:22:03) You're absolutely wrecked. People don't (00:22:04) think that are relative humidity in Minnesota can get below 10% down to like six or eight percent, but sometimes it can and that was one instance when it did thank you for coming up to the mic and asking a question. If you're just tuning in this is midday. We're broadcasting live today from the Minnesota State Fair first day of the fair. We're at our booth the Minnesota Public Radio Booth, which is located near the corner of Judson and Nelson not too far from the haunted house in the DNR building right across the street from the river ride in the high diving board. If you're at the fair anytime during the reign of pharaoh, make sure you come by our booth. We have lots of very nice gifts for you to look over. You also have an opportunity to enter a drawing somebody will win $20,000 toward a new vehicle courtesy of Luther automobile dealerships. So that's a great deal of It's going to win that might as well give yourself a chance, but do come by would love to meet you mark. Seeley is here to take whether questions. We have a he has the weather quiz with him and he's come bearing gifts for participants those of you on the phone. We can't offer you a present, but we'd sure like to get your question on the air. So give us a call six five one two, two seven six thousand or 1-800 to for 22828 by the way Mark, we should note since we're doing a weather program that the forecast for today sunny to partly sunny all across the state Breezy all day long mid 70s to mid-80s. You can't beat it with a stick whether on a stick tonight clear skies with lows in the 50s tomorrow sunny across Minnesota highs mid 70s to the mid 80s the Twin City forecast partly cloudy all afternoon kind of breezy with a high in the low 80s tonightclear with a low in the upper 50s, so it should be good for sleeping tonight. And then another nice day tomorrow sunny with a high in the low 80s. You have done wonders with that weather forecast. The only thing I forgot to bring today was the sunblock. (00:24:07) Yeah. (00:24:08) Well, but I'm not going to be here that long. So let's let's hear from another young Mark ceiling fan (00:24:18) is going to be sunny. But how come it's getting partly sunny? (00:24:23) Well, we don't always get it right there's enough. There's enough water vapor around from you know, that hot sticky spell we had earlier this week. There's enough water vapor around that even on the backside of this cold front. We're getting a few clouds forming but I don't think we're going to get any precipitation out of it, but they are going to obscure the sun periodically today and we probably didn't anticipate how many clouds we were going to get. Okay. Are you ready for a question from Mark? What question would that be? What number would that be Mark? How about number 19 Gilbert? 1919? Okay. Yes. (00:25:10) Okay. Do you know where Rush (00:25:11) City is? How good is your Minnesota geography you ever travel up Highway 35 towards Duluth. Okay, Rush cities up along there. Okay, and back on July 26th last month. They had a horrible heat index in Rush City. Okay, was that a 95 degrees be 105 degrees or see 115 degrees C be a hundred and five. It was a hundred and fifteen actually and you know what you do what with a hundred and fifteen degree heat index you put your swimsuit on and you go sit in the swimming pool. And yes, if eliminate that's what you do and right now you get the chance a gift for yourself. Thank you so much for for coming up and asking a question. Let's take a caller on the line here Mary. You're next. (00:26:09) Hello? Yes. You're on the air. Oh good. Huh? Say I'm going to build a school weather center, and I've got a lot of the particulars figured out. But there's one thing I can't seem to find out and that is I'm going to put a minimum maximum thermometer on the north side of the building. But my question is, is there a standard height that it should be mounted on on the post or on the building? Yes, there is (00:26:38) Mary in simple terms. What I do is are you using liquid in glass thermometers? Are you using some kind of an electronic thermometer? (00:26:48) Sure, whether to get if you do have a recommendation. (00:26:52) Well, there's a number of thermistors that are available now, they're a little more expensive and you have to have battery power or something like that, but they have a pretty good accuracy or you can buy liquid in glass but make sure you by Mercury for your maximum temperature and alcohol thermometer for your minimum temperature, but they might that might be a little less money actually than the thermistors. But anyway, when you mount those Mount them about 5 feet above the ground and if you are concerned about matching The Weather Service criteria precisely try to mount them above a Turf covered ground surface. So in other words over some grass If you can't do that 5 feet, okay, anyway, and on the North side, you're going to be shaded all the time as well. So it sounds like to me like you're doing the right thing Mary you want to put your thinking cap on and take a guess here at one of the weather quiz questions. Okay. (00:27:54) Okay. (00:27:57) This one is about our Minnesota weather volunteers and we have many many of them how many volunteer observers report daily precipitation in the state of Minnesota and your choices are a 150 be 1400 or (00:28:18) c600. I hope it's (00:28:22) 1,400. All right, you're absolutely right. And it's I might add Mary. It's one of the characteristics that were proud of in Minnesota. Not only our volunteerism but among the North Central States. We have more volunteer weather observers than any other state partly because minnesotans are so infatuated with the weather and partly because they just like to volunteer for things worked out good forever, right? Hey, thanks for the question Mary. Appreciate your calling in young lady here has a question for Mark (00:28:56) Seeley. I've been so humid out. (00:29:01) Well, that's a good question. That the humidity we've had the last five to six days was a result of some of two features one is we've been getting a lot of air from the south and it's been bringing up more moisture from the south. Okay. The other feature is our atmosphere has we've had a lot of inversions which means that when we have inversions the air doesn't mix real. Well, okay, and so what's near the surface in terms of say a lot of evaporation a lot of water or a lot of smoker a lot of smells from the state fair or whatever. Is it mixing well and being carried up it's stained down near where you and I live and breathe and because it does that the dewpoint builds up and we really feel all that humidity. So those are the two reasons why it's been so sticky lately. And thankfully now today it's a lot less sticky because that airs been swept off to the east of us. Would you like to answer a question? Okay. What question would she be answering Mark? Okay. I'll ask her a Hailstone question number 24 24 24. Okay, and I might add I might add this one comes from the Minnesota conservation volunteer. Okay on July 4th 1966. The largest hailstone ever recorded in Minnesota was collected at Detroit Lakes. What was the circumference of this Hailstone a 4 inches be 8 inches or C 12 (00:30:47) inches. (00:30:49) You're absolutely right. Did you read that article? Hahaha. Excellent. Nice going excellent my Cheat cheat only went up to 22 Mark. Oh, oh, oh, I threw in a few extra ones that young lady had to work all by herself Isabel. You're on the phone with a question for Mark Seeley. Go ahead (00:31:08) please on rainbows. I was in Scotland a few years ago and sailing towards the Isle of Mull one of the lower Hebrides and we saw many many double rainbows and I just wondered if it had been said about triple and quadruple rainbow. Do you have any record of (00:31:30) that? I don't know what the record is for multiple rainbows Isabel. It may be more than four. I really don't know but you have to have some real peculiarities to in order to have multiple rainbows. You have to have very odd cloud formations often times what we call a mixed Sky Gary with clouds that are of different elevations, you know, you have a low deck of clouds and maybe a mid or a high deck of clouds and then you have multiple shafts of light coming through and because what you really need is you need those multiple shafts of light or the reflective light passing through these different water droplets in the sky at different levels. And so you really do need an unusual Sky. Now the Western Hibbert, he's in Scotland is a place. I've been there a few times where you do get these real mixed Skies you get real low decks of And then above those you have some mid layer and maybe even have some vertical cumulus clouds that go up to maybe 30 or 40,000 feet. So of all the places in the world to see a sky that's conducive to that the Western Hibbert. He's in Scotland would be one place where you would see multiple rainbows Isabella. Would you like to answer a question? Okay. Okay Isabelle I have another tornado question out of over 1,400 documented Minnesota tornadoes in this all the way back in history. How many have been classified as F5 tornadoes with wind speeds estimated above 261 miles per hour. The choices are now bear in mind. This is historical a7b 15 or (00:33:28) C32. fifteen good guess we've actually had only seven (00:33:37) thankfully. Thankfully we've had only seven the most recent of which was the Chandler, Minnesota tornado in June of 1992 Gary which was rated an F5 and thankfully we don't see as many of those as form down say in the Southern Plains around Oklahoma and Texas because those leave very little those wind speeds with an F5 tornado leave very little left on the landscape. It's like the landscape is completely swept clean. Thanks Isabel fair question. Appreciate it one of the gentlemen out here answered that question correctly. I don't know. He's probably get a prize later. I said, yeah sure. Why not actually was that rich we're sitting right there. I know I know him. He's a smart guy. I see this young gentleman has a question for Mark Seeley. Go ahead sir. (00:34:29) How to turn a dose form tornadoes form (00:34:34) that brings up a good question a good point I can make here tornadoes need a certain amount of in what we call ingredients to form. The atmosphere has to be very unstable and what we mean by that is once the warm air starts rising from down here on the ground. It rises more and more rapidly as it goes Aloft. Okay, you have to have an unstable atmosphere. You have to have a moist atmosphere. You got to have a lot of water vapor in the air. Okay, and usually you have to have a parent what we call a parent cloud system. That's a lot of cumulonimbus Thunderhead type clouds that have a lot of vertical development. So that may be the base of the clouds about four or five thousand feet. But the top of the cloud is about 50,000 feet. Okay, so it's really an enormous cloud. And the wind starts circulating typically if you look at your diagrams in textbooks the circulation or the vortex of the what's eventually going to be the tornado is horizontal in nature and then it tilts it and it tilts and it comes down to the Earth that way however, there are a small number of tornadoes very few that form from what we call surface convergence of the Winds. And that's where all the winds at the surface converge to one area and they start a rotation and then the vortex of wind actually ascends into the cloud but that's a very small number but that's a reason we still need storm spotters. We can't rely 100% on our radar to detect all tornadoes. We still need human beings to go out and watch for them because sometimes tornadoes can form out of the detection of our radar systems. Would you like would you like to answer a question officer? Okay. What number would that be Mark? Let's go with number three number three for three. (00:36:40) What is a cockeyed (00:36:41) Bob? Okay overworked severe weather meteorologist. That's what they used to call Bob Potter. Yeah. I called him that many a time a type of hail stone or a Squall in Northwest, Australia. You're absolutely right. Leave it to the Australians to come up with a colorful name like cockeyed Bob now, but make sure you get yourself a present here and thank you for participating. Well, we do a lot of smart people especially the kids they seem to get all the questions right except for that first person. They're doing well. I must say I must interject the these books are doing very well. Those of you that don't have the opportunity to get these books for your children or grandchildren picture window books.com has a website where you can get the weather series. If you go to picture window books.com, you can purchase them online. I'm really happy to have contributed to that. Josefa Sherman and Jeff yet and Omar Wesley where the illustrators and authors but they did a wonderful job. Those are very good Reader Books. If you want to introduce your small children to the subjects of Science, and they really are cool. I really our crew (00:37:58) sir your question please morning Mark. Can I wax my cross-country skis this winter? (00:38:05) Should I oh boy. That's a tough one, you know for the last five winners have just been exceptionally mild. I guess I don't have to tell you that if you're if you like outdoor recreation, like most minnesotans, it's been really tough to Bear the Outlook. The truth of the matter is the outlook for winter by the our national weather service is yet to be in fact, I believe their first look at it comes out this week. So we're just slightly premature on actually getting the expert assessment, but I will tell you one thing despite the mild Winters we've had for the last five winners the long-term Trend if you look at the real long-term picture, Is upward for most locations in Minnesota in terms of snowfall and I'll illustrate that by saying the long-term mean in the Twin Cities metro area. Gary is 45 inches. In a seasonal season of snow. That's what like the grand hundred and twenty year mean. Okay, but if we dissect that and we look at the last 30 years only it's 57 inches, its upward you can find that up along the North Shore Central Minnesota Western Minnesota. So at least regardless of what the forecast is for this winter, at least the long-term trend is upward with respect to Total deposition of snowfall so you can wax away and then I don't know maybe it'll hang on till next year or something. I did you want to answer a weather quiz question. Sure. (00:39:46) Okay, let's go (00:39:47) with let's see. The shape of a snowflake primarily depends on now. This is the shape mind you a how windy it is be the temperature of the air or see if it is night or day. Be you're absolutely right. Excellent. It's actually it's the temperature of the air the temperature of the air dictates. What form of Ice Crystal forms is most prevalent. And then the adhesion of all those ice crystals that forms the snowflake is a function of what shape that Ice Crystal is so fundamentally. It's the temperature that dictates what shape that is. All right, make sure you get yourself a yourself to a gift whether prize there those of you who are out in the audience. We don't have a lot of time left. But if you've got a weather question for Mark Seeley, you'd like to get one of the prizes that he's passing out come on up to the microphone with a question those of you on the radio. We have lots of callers on the line. We should point out by the way, you can find out more about these prizes on our website Minnesota Public Radio dot-org. You can also find the weather quiz and is it okay to cheat for people to cheat when they take the quiz online? Oh, I think so. Nobody's looking right right bill. Self esteem that way Tom your question for Mark Place. (00:41:14) Hi Mark. My question is this listen up to the mic actually took my question. So I had to come up with another one. Can you comment on the article? I saw not too long ago about the ozone kind of healing itself. Is that one time phenomena, or is that something new that you guys have discovered? (00:41:39) I don't think it's a one-time phenomena. Although there is a great deal of year-to-year variability in what's detected in stratospheric Ozone the strategy of stratospheric ozone, which for those of you that don't remember is the ozone Aloft way way above the Earth surface is the protective shield that really ensures that we don't get overly exposed to ultraviolet radiation and it does have some year-to-year variability, but I think this is an example or at least documentation that some of the mitigation measures that were taken in the last few decades to not use so many of the chemicals that are destructive Gary to stratospheric Ozone has actually that that mitigation is starting to have some effect and I think this is some documented evidence that that what we've done is actually starting to improve the stratospheric ozone. Zone and there will be for example when we go measure it next year we may find, you know different values because as I said, there may be some year-to-year variation, but what recent measurements are showing is that the trend hopefully is upward again and that it's being replenished in the stratosphere from what it was years ago Tom interested in playing they are trying taking a shot at one of these questions in the quiz. Oh sure. All right, I think Mark I think you need to ask about was it frig among trigonometry. Oh you ask that you ask that one? Yeah. What is that? What is frigga phobia? Frigga phobia Fri Geo phobia, of course, there's a lot of whether fears and this is one of them, okay. A of fear of snow be of fear of hail or see a fear of cold. (00:43:40) You're absolutely right fear of (00:43:42) cold and hopefully we don't have too many minnesotans that suffer from Fear frigga phobia because of all the states to live in they probably picked the wrong one. All right. Now, we have a young baseball player with a question for Mark (00:43:56) ceiling snowflakes different. (00:44:02) Why are they different? Oh mercy. Well, I wish I could tell you that's a very good point though. They are all different and I think it's because they really true that each snowflake is different than all other snowflakes will I mean, it seems hard to believe let's let's be honest there was there was a gentleman named Bentley from Vermont Gary that photographed thousands upon thousands upon thousands of snowflakes and although he found some that were similar in structure. He did not find any two alike. Okay. So back to the young gentleman's question, so it is a truth. What the young man is saying but as to the answer why there's a lot of factors. We just talked about temperature and how it affects the shape of snowflakes and snowflakes form at different levels in the cloud. So as they fall to Earth, they collide with other snowflakes and so they may take on different forms and shapes as a result of those collisions or sometimes they'll merge together and form one gigantic snowflake. So there's lots of things going on in the atmosphere that probably affect their shape, but I really don't have any good answer for you. I'm completely stumped. You stumped me now. Can Mark stump you would you like to answer try to answer a question. What what question would he be answering Mark? Let's see. Let's go with number 16, Gary Okay. All right on average. Okay. So this is a historical question on (00:45:46) average how many Hail reports (00:45:50) are filed in Minnesota each year less than (00:45:54) 10. Forty to sixty (00:45:58) or a hundred and twenty to a hundred and (00:46:02) forty. (00:46:10) You're absolutely right. That's hundred. Excellent to a hundred forty. Yeah, and we've had close to that many already this year and we still have a little bit of Summer left where we still might get a few more Hill reports. It's amazing and make sure you get a present now, it's amazing how good these youngsters are at answering all the weather quiz questions mark it is really surprised. You haven't been coaching them or anyway, I found it pretty difficult quiz, but they're just getting every one of them, right? I don't quite understand it (00:46:43) ma'am. You have a question for Mark Seeley. (00:46:45) It's get the mic down there. There we (00:46:47) go. All in all ways before a storm snow storm thunder storm. The kids are acting up and we say must be a storm coming. I know it has something to do with the air pressure, but not sure exactly how that works. (00:46:59) So you you're observing an unsettling Behavior whatever before a storm, huh, (00:47:04) well, we think so (00:47:07) well the the German meteorologists have studied storm-related maladies how people behave aches and pains mental disorders you name it they use a term called Vetter smarts to describe this but I don't think they've come up with any with any answers some people though in terms of joint pain and some people in terms of maybe chemistry of the brain they do respond to atmospheric pressure changes. Well animals do animals why shouldn't people yeah, I suppose and maybe children Express that various ways, but I don't envy you being a schoolteacher and coping with those kinds of behaviors that must be difficult at times. I bet she's real good though it at answering questions and quizzes. Oh you think so. Yeah you want cake. Are you game? We don't put pressure on you here. Okay, you have you been a long time Twin Cities residents. I live in Winona. Oh you live in Winona? Okay. All right. Well, this one's a Twin Cities question. But I think if your longtime Minnesota resident, you got a good shot at it. Okay, which month shows the highest frequency for freezing rain in the Twin Cities area, November March or (00:48:26) December? Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun (00:48:34) I think of Christmases (00:48:35) past. (00:48:39) December yeah, absolutely, right? All right. In fact, no other months are quite as as frequent as the month of December I and again there's another reason I don't know why but if you go back historically you find the most occurrences of freezing rain here in the month of December help yourself to a prize here. So I want to get one quick caller question on here. We're just about out of time Rebecca a real quick (00:49:04) question. Hello. Thanks so much for taking my call. You bet. My question is about colored lightning. Now. I live in an apartment. That's very high up on a hill. So I have a bird's eye view of all storms and this spring I saw lightning that was turquoise and bright blue and I'm wondering whether I need my eyes checked or whether there's an explanation for this. (00:49:29) No, you're you're not needing your eyes checked Rebecca. There's been a number of papers done. In fact some recently by dr. Walt Lyons. Early of the Twin Cities here that have documented the color of lightning and it can be all over the Spectrum depending on the composition of aerosols in the atmosphere when those discharges occur. All right. Let's see Rebecca. Would you like to answer our (00:49:53) question quickly? Sure. Give me a tough one. Okay, that's a tough one. Okay. How (00:49:58) about that? Cleante deal? Here we go. I'll last number 17 here. All (00:50:03) right. What is the Camelot climate index used for I trust that maybe you're familiar with Camelot. Sure. (00:50:11) Okay. The Camelot climate index is a to evaluate the frequency of fog be to determine climate suitability for human habitation or C2 forecast UV (00:50:25) radiation being that it's Camelot. I would think fog might have something to do with it. So it's to guess a it's actually be to (00:50:35) determine climate suitability for climate habitation. Remember Camelot was never too hot never too cold never too. Wet never to dry. That's how the song goes. So they named that the Camelot climate index. All right time for one last quick (00:50:51) question bam. Good morning. I have heard that by the end of this Century. The Minnesota climate will be close to that of the state of Kansas. Is there any truth to that? (00:51:08) That is debatable. What we're seeing in terms of our temperature change in Minnesota is mostly the winter months. Our Winters are getting warmer. If you look at the other Seasons spring summer and fall, you don't see that positive trend. So as far as feeling like Kansas gosh, maybe will feel like Kansas in the winter, you know, but it's not to say well feel like Kansas in the other Seasons, so we have to be careful. Interpretations of the data like that get to be pretty difficult to prove. So although that may in fact materialize. I think there's a lot of other scenarios that might yet materialized to quick question on the quiz. Okay. Let's see very quickly occasionally Northern Minnesota lakes are still frozen over the fishing fishing opener second weekend of May. When was the last time this happened 1988 1955 or 1996? What number is that Mark that's number so I can follow a line number 20 number (00:52:22) 20? I was going to say see (00:52:26) 1996. That's right. We had to not allow fishing on some Northern Minnesota Lakes because they were still ice cover. I'm from Thief River Falls. Oh, there you go. Okay. Well thanks to all of you who've been game enough to participate here again. All of the the entire weather quiz is on our website right more information about some of these prizes, especially those books. I think you'll be interested to find and links to the other prizes will be on the website to Gary Minnesota Public Radio dot org is our web address in very briefly. Mark guesstimate is to the weather the rest of the run of the fair. Well, I think this weekend is going to get a little warm and a little return of humidity conversely. Looking ahead at later next week going into the second weekend of the fair. It looks rather mild with maybe a few below normal. As for the second weekend of the fair now you're off to the University of Minnesota education building. We're going over to talk about global climate change winter Golf and summer storms are the theme. So if people want to go over to Dan Patch will be talking about that and those of you here, thank you for coming by the first hour stick around. I'll great conversation coming up over the noon hour. We're going to be talking with the two top County attorneys in Minnesota Hennepin County attorney. Amy Klobuchar Ramsey County attorney Susan Garrett Nur will be here. They'll be here to take your questions. And who knows maybe they'll have some get-out-of-jail-free cards for us. (00:54:05) Is evil alive in the world today States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of Evil? I'm Neal Conan from Auschwitz to 911. Let's Morrow joins us to discuss his new book evil next Talk of the Nation from NPR news. (00:54:25) Tune in Talk of the Nation weekday afternoons at one here on Minnesota Public Radio. It's 12 o'clock. And it's 76 degrees in the Twin Cities. This is 91.1 knnow Minneapolis-Saint Paul the forecast for State Fair goers partly sunny breezy this afternoon with a high around 82 Northwest winds at 20 to 30 miles an hour. It'll be clear and to comfortable tonight with lows in the upper 50s sunny tomorrow with a high around 82 in mid 80s for the weekend stay tuned news headlines coming up on Minnesota Public Radio.