August 11, 2016 - MPR’s Tom Weber interviews Sean Christenson, Willmar's city engineer, about how the city is dealing with historic deluge on August 10, 2016…one he considers a 1,000-year rainfall event.
September 9, 2016 - MPR’s Dan Kraker investigates the warming waters of Lake Superior. In late August 2016, the average surface water temperature for the entire lake hit 68 and a half degrees (the second highest ever recorded). In Lake Superior, researchers at the University of Minnesota Duluth have found that summer surface water temperatures have increased by 5 degrees over the past 30 years.
April 17, 2017 - MPR’s Elizabeth Dunbar reports on the repeated flooding conditions found in the Red River Valley. Dunbar interviews several scientists who have studied climate and hydrology in the Red River basin.
June 14, 2017 - MPR’s Matt Sepic reports on struggle some mobile home park tenants face in getting a state law required storm shelter on park grounds. Segment includes interviews with tenants, landlord, advocacy group member, and government official.
October 10, 2018 - MPR’s Dan Kraker visits Duluth’s Canal Park and finds himself soaked as he witnesses 20-foot waves crash along the shore of Lake Superior.
January 30, 2019 - MPR’s Matt Sepic reports on the various ways Minnesotans are dealing with the brutal cold snap that hit the state. Amid some of the coldest weather in a generation, the Postal Service stopped delivering mail, schools closed, homeless sought shelter, a rail on the Blue Line cracked, Twin Cities hospitals saw a jump in frostbite cases, and there were broken water mains. Report is followed by an interview with John Storkamp, a runner in the Arrowhead 135 race.
February 25, 2019 - MPR’s Marianne Combs reports on gusting winds and drifting snow that trapped hundreds in areas of Minnesota. Combs interviews some of those that were trapped and officials who rescued them.
March 8, 2019 - MPR’s Dan Kraker visits an area about a quarter-mile offshore from Duluth's Leif Erikson Park, where a hearty band of volunteers have carved a skating rink unlike any other on the frozen surface of Lake Superior. It is an increasing rarity, as warmer winters over the past few decades have resulted in substantially less ice cover.
March 11, 2019 - As part of Women's History Month, MPR News host Angela Davis sat down with Ann Bancroft, one of the world's most respected polar explorers. Davis also interviews Kathy Lantry in this audio as well.
March 27, 2019 - Springtime in Duluth isn't signaled by birds or butterflies or flowers. Duluthians know it's spring when the Coast Guard icebreakers arrive, announcing the start of another Great Lakes shipping season. MPR’s Dan Kraker takes a ride on the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Alder as it breaks ice and creates navigation lanes for the opening of the maritime shipping season.