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At 4:14 PM, the Madison, Minnesota weather station (KDXX) reported a high of 84F (29C) today. The relative humidity there at the time was 7%. The 7:34AM reading there this morning was 32F (0C), a difference in less than 9 hours of 52 degrees. This beats the state record for today of 75F set in numerous southern and western Minnesota communities by 9F.
The 84-degree reading there exceeded the highest temperature today reported in Wisconsin (82F in Boscobel), Illinois (82F in Chicago), and equaled the highest in Iowa and Nebraska. It did not, however, exceed the 87F recorded in Phillips, SD. Note that the low there was 34F this morning.
Several other Minnesota stations reported 80F highs. Appleton reached 80F; if Weather Underground is to be believed, this represents a 47-degree departure from average. The Minneapolis Flying Cloud Airport reported a high of 81F/27C; the Minneapolis - St. Paul airport recorded 79F/26C (+38F from average); Brainerd reported 75F/24C (+39F from average). Even the extreme north of Minnesota was warm; International Falls, Grand Rapids, and Bemidji reported 71F/22C; Warroad was at 69F/20C. Perhaps even more impressively, numerous North Dakota stations reached into the upper 70s, with Bismarck hitting 81F/27C. Winnipeg hit 67F/19C.
The only part of Minnesota not to report record-breaking temperatures was the Superior shoreline, where on-shore breezes from the cold lake kept temperatures into the upper 30's right along the shoreline. Duluth International Airport, about five miles inland, reported a high of 55F/12C, still 21 degrees above the average high of 34F/1C. While Madison reached the mid-80s and Minneapolis was basking in 79-degree warmth, the Duluth - Park Point station (on a sandbar surrounded by water on both sides) was at 41F.
Moist air has moved into the state, and lows look they will not dive down as far as they did last night. Currently the Twin Cities stations are observing temperatures in the mid-to-upper 60s with KMSP (the international airport) reporting an incredible 69 F (21 C). Forecast lows for tonight and tomorrow night are around 60 F (15 C) in southern Minnesota - at least 10F warmer than the average high. Even in the North the forecast lows are only in the mid-40s (around 10F higher than the average high).
Currently in Duluth it is 44 F (7 C). It looks like tomorrow here will once again be ruined by Lake Superior, with a forecast high of "only" 62 F (17 C) - still beating the record of 61F set in 1968. However, as soon as the influence of Lake Superior is escaped (about 20-30 miles away) forecast temperatures move into middle to upper 70s for the Duluth NWS forecast area!
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