Minnesota weather is part of daily life, and it brings with it many “extremes.” This collection presents some of those…from the floods of the Red River Valley, the blowdown in the BWCA, the Halloween Blizzard, to the devasting tornado in St. Peter. But were a state of many meteorological dimensions, not just tornadoes and blizzards. Below are memories of oppressive drought, the creep of flood waters, nature driven fire, and those glorious 50-degree December day anomalies. While these stories may attempt to explain the why, where, and what of various weather events, what is striking is the undeniable power of the human experience in the face of it all.
June 1, 2012 - Superior National Forest officials have detailed the harrowing story of six wilderness rangers who were nearly burned to death in the Boundary Waters during the battle to contain the Pagami Creek fire last year. The rangers all survived uninjured, but the incident has forced the Forest Service to change its approach to wildfires.
June 20, 2012 - MPR’s Tom Crann talks with meteorologist Paull Huttner about the intense rainstorm that passed over the Duluth area. Huttner details the specific atmospheric conditions that brought the rain.
June 20, 2012 - Craig Sanders, a retired meteorologist who lives in Duluth, talks about his experience with the Duluth flooding, bailing out water from his house. He also comments on the job meteorologists have to do.
June 20, 2012 - MPR’s Tom Crann interviews Don Ness, mayor of Duluth, about conditions of city in the aftermath of extrodinary rainfall in a 24-hour period. Ness declared a state of emergency today.
June 20, 2012 - Rob Skutevik, a pastor of the Fond du Lac Community Church, talks about his experience with the Duluth flooding. He and his family left with the water lapping up his front steps, and those of the church next door.
June 20, 2012 - MPR’s Dan Kraker interviews residents in Duluth about their experiences during intense rainstorm and subsequent flooding.
June 20, 2012 - Nicole Kor, a student at University of Minnesota Duluth, talks about escaping from her basement apartment last night.
August 27, 2013 - MPR’s Matt Sepic reports on record heat in Minnesota, and how some are coping with it at places like the Minnesota State Fair and Minneapolis schools.
February 21, 2014 - Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer checks with Elizabeth Baier in Rochester on the blizzard conditions in area. Much of the state was covered in snow, including southeastern Minnesota, which closed roads and schools.
July 6, 2016 - MPR’s John Enger reports from Deer River, a small town in Itasca county, which was hit especially hard by a storm racing across northern Minnesota on July 5, 2016. The damaging rain and wind came just days before the town’s annual Wild Rice Festival.