Climate change, industry, parks, air and water quality are issues that are debated in congress, compete for funding and enpassion many Minnesotans.
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.
July 7, 2016 - After a thunderstorm rolled through the Twin Cities that created severe flash floods, MPR’s Tom Crann asks meteorologist Paul Huttner about the moisture conditions and urban landscape environment that made for the ingredients for flash flooding.
July 12, 2016 - MPR’s Matt Sepic reports that in central Minnesota, residents of Litchfield and Watkins are cleaning up after a late afternoon tornado on July 11th damaged homes and other buildings in those communities. The damage shows both the immense power of tornadoes and the precision of their destruction.
July 21, 2016 - MPR’s Dan Kraker reports on the impact of powerful overnight storms in Duluth area. Wind gusts toppled trees on top of homes and cars, downed power lines, and blocked streets.
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.