
"Showers of Oil?" Check out this YouTube clip, actually there are multiple video clips on YouTube all showing pretty much the same thing: oily rain hitting the Gulf coast. Now under normal conditions oil doesn't evaporate. But some experts are theorizing that with all the recent chemicals being poured on the oil in the Gulf of Mexico, some strange reaction may be taking place that scientists are unable to explain. At first I dismissed this as a hoax, just a few people out with cameras trying to get attention. But the more I looked at this video the more I started to wonder if maybe there really is oil (somehow) mixing in with the rain falling on coastal communities. This has never happened before, a spill of this magnitude and duration. We are in uncharted waters - at this point I guess I wouldn't rule anything out. This catastrophe has humbled the alleged "experts", so who knows what is true and what isn't. Take a look. Tell me what you think.



Paul's SC Times Outlook for St. Cloudce and all of central Minnesota
Today: Bright sun, beautiful. Winds: SE 10-15. High: 79
Wednesday night: Clear and comfortable. Low: 60
Thursday: Starting to feel more like summer again, mostly sunny, warmer. High: 83
Friday: Partly sunny, feeling sticky. High: 85
Saturday: Hazy sunshine, muggy - a stiff breeze (South 15-30). High: 89
Saturday night: Showers and T-storms possible, especially western MN. Low: 68
4th of July: More clouds than sun, unsettled - showers/T-storms likely. High: 82
Monday: Better, sunnier and drier statewide with a drop in humidity. High: 84
Tuesday: Plenty of sun, still pleasant. High: 83
Look out the window. Exhibit A. Proof positive that - yes - Minnesota is still America's best kept secret. My oldest son, Walt, just graduated from Penn State (he's working with me at WeatherNation, helping out with post-production, editing, video challenges in general - I'm very proud of him). Most of the people attending Penn State are from the east, a significant percentage of his friends consistently mixed up Minnesota with Montana. He would bring up the lakes, the culture, the arts, the music scene, and they would always get this distant, vacant look in their eyes. "You live WHERE...?" Minnesota. My Mother in Law thought we were living in Milwaukee (easy to mix up the M-Cities, I guess). A favorite aunt wished me luck as I was about to fly back to "Indianapolis."
Most Americans have no idea what we have up here, and it's probably just as well. Let them swap urban legends of our winters (reinforced by the national media). "They test batteries in International Falls, don't they?" Minnesota, let's see: Prince, Jesse Ventura, and The Capital of Cold. In that order. Repeat. Once people come here, and see it with their own two eyes, their opinion of Minnesota forever changes. They sample our extraordinary suburbs. "You mean ALL the public schools are good?" Yep. "How can that be?" I shrug - visibly proud of my adopted state. "It's clean, safe, people actually take the time to smile and ask how you're doing - it's all an act, right?" Yes, Minnesota is composed of roughly 5 million actors, all pretending to be nice.
I know we have our issues and problems - I want to live long enough to see the Crosstown Commons (mess) completed. Summer construction is a bummer, the lakes are getting increasingly polluted, choked with runoff and millfoil. But overall the air is clean, pollution is minimal (compared to Chicago and the Philadelphia area, where I was born, where many days the sky was so hazy and orange you had trouble finding the sun - I kid you not). I do not take our relatively pristine environment for granted, not for a minute, which makes it hard for me to share a troubling story about the loon population (from Conservation MN - see below).
O.K. Sorry to sound like a shill for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, but sometimes we forget what we have here - we get caught up in our problem-of-the-day. One of the things I like most about the great state of Minnesota? You can see all the way to tomorrow - just about 40 miles in every direction. Every day we get to enjoy a (free) show unfolding overhead, with amazing clouds formations, awe-inspiring sunrises and sunsets - every day is different, every weather pattern unique. I know, what a weather-geek. Guilty as charged. I would lose my mind in Palm Springs, San Diego or Miami (after a couple of years....) Seriously, what do the meteorologists in those towns do?
Nice to get a break this week, after tracking nearly 200 severe storms over a 10-day period from June 17-26. No tornadoes up until June 17, then 36 in 10 days. Very odd. Southern Minnesota is finally drying out after drenching, almost tropical rains on Saturday. Welcome to the 4th dry day in a row (!) with bright sun, temperatures mellowing a few degrees (after a cool start, that is). A few towns up north are waking up to 40s, light jackets and sweatshirts - you'll be able to abandon any jacket by 9 am, highs approaching 80 by late afternoon as winds swing around to the southeast. Another perfect day.
No weather worries through Saturday as temperatures mellow, within 24-48 hours it will feel like summer again, with highs well up into the 80s - 90 is not out of the question Saturday afternoon (with a gusty south wind, blowing at 15-25 with a few gust to 30). Plan on a choppy boat ride on your favorite lake, but the sun should be out most of the day - showers and storms holding off until Saturday night (when some of the rain may be heavy at times).

The 4th? Far from perfect, but probably not an all-day rain, maybe 2-4 hours of showers and T-storms as a cool front pushes across the state, winds easing, blowing from the west to northwest at 8-13 with a few higher gusts in the vicinity of T-storms. That front keeps sailing east, treating us to a mostly sunny, mostly-dry Monday. So two out of the three days look dry and lake-friendly. Not bad odds for the biggest weekend of summer.
Weekend Weather Highlights
Best lake day: Saturday: sunshine, gusty, but dry. Winds: S 15-30. High: 85-90
4th of July: More clouds than sun, 1-2 hours of showers/storms. Winds: W/NW 8-13. High: 82-87
Monday: Plenty of sun, drop in humidity, probably dry. Winds: W 10-15. High: 83-87



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