August 1, 2003 - Welcome to August......State Fair time will be upon us soon...... To: Jim Bickal, Perry Finelli, Julie Siple, and Eugene Cha From: Mark Seeley Re: Suggestions for MPR's Morning Edition, Friday, August 1, 2003 Topic: Preliminary July Climate Summary For the most part temperatures averaged out near normal, with more communities reporting small negative (cooler than normal) departures
July 18, 2003 - The new seasonal climate outlook is hardly worth mentioning. For the period from August through October, the Climate Prediction Center suggests we will have equal chances of below or above normal values of temperature and rainfall......no distinct trends are apparent and no particular consistent signal is shown by the forecast models..... Mark Mark Seeley Professor and Extension Climatologist Dept of Soil, Water, and Climate
July 17, 2003 - . Three landowners in Washington County will be honored today for their efforts to protect open spaces in the Twin Cities area. They will receive awards from the McKnight Foundation, which wants to raise awareness about threats to natural areas. One of the awards will go to David Hartwell, on behalf of his family. Hartwell is the grandson of Charlie Bell and the president of Belwin, a nonprofit organization set up by the Bell family to protect open space in the Afton area. Hartwell says it all started when his grandparents bought a weekend retreat near Afton.
July 11, 2003 - Severe thunderstorms in Nebraska back on June 22nd may have produced a new record size hailstone for the United States. With cloud tops as high as 71,000 feet, massive thunderstorm complexes passed over Hamilton County, Nebraska on that Sunday night. Hail began to fall, producing 10 to 12 inch diameter impact craters in the soil surface. Most of the hailstones broke up on impact, some falling through the roof of several homes. Two of the hailstones from Aurora, NE were collected and preserved for National Weather Service inspection and measurement. One measured 6.5 inches in diameter and 17.3 inches in circumference, while the other measured 7 inches in diameter and 18.75 inches in circumference. The recognized record hailstone size in the United States is from a thunderstorm over Coffeyville, KS on September 3, 1970 that produced a stone 5.7 inches in diameter and 17.5 inches in circumference. Staff from the National Center for Atmospheric Research will soon determine whether or not one of the Aurora, NE hailstones represents a new record.
July 4, 2003 - Despite the tough budget year... Minnesota's Board of Animal Health is getting some extra money to fight Chronic Wasting Disease. The Legislature allocated an additional 800-thousand dollars for that purpose over the next two years. Dr. Paul Anderson is the Assistant Director of the Board. He says the money is meant to help keep the disease under control.
July 4, 2003 - Tropical Storm Bill emerged from the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week, drenching several southeastern Gulf states. It also produced many severe thunderstorms and over 30 tornadoes. This brought the number of tornadoes reported across the nation this year close to 1000, a record setting pace for so early in the summer. The record number of annual tornadoes is 1424 set in 1998.
June 13, 2003 - Having read what Mark Steil put together for the National Windsurfing Championships near Worthington this week, I added the following comments... Topic: U.S. Windsurfing National Championships This week's National Windsurfing Championships are taking place on Lake Okabena near Worthington and Windom, MN. Conditions were relatively unfavorable on Wednesday this week with easterly to southeasterly winds ranging from only 8 to 13 mph in the afternoon. However, conditions improved on Thursday, as winds
June 4, 2003 - Best Buy has been moving people into its new headquarters on 494 since early 2003. Today, they are holding the campus dedication. It marks the end of their move. The headquarters are sort of an all-inclusive campus. They have an exercise place, shops, places to eat, child care... everything except bowling, Marcus says. He can describe the headquarters. He says this is something of a trend, particularly in the Twin Cities. 3M has a similar setup, as well as some other companies. And, he says, there are other companies throughout the country that have this sort of setup.
June 2, 2003 - Sound Money co-host Chris Farrell discusses the latest economic news.
May 30, 2003 -