TPT NOW

15/08/2025

13/08/2025

Love the music on TPT NOW but want to listen to specific songs wherever you go? Find our entire music playlist on Spotify! Save all your TPT NOW favorites here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6IsmqtkJlo4tvO2T0gcXX6?si=7c570d89385349e6

07/08/2025

TPT NOW airs to keep viewers like you healthy, safe, and ready. Help us support this vital resource. The moment is now: TPT.org/GiveNow

06/08/2025

REMINDER: The monthly siren test will be happening TODAY August 6th at 1:00 PM.

Monthly siren tests occur the first Wednesday of every month.

05/08/2025

So far this year, TPT NOW has provided 76 weather alerts to diverse Minnesotans, reaching 1 million households across the Twin Cities metro during emergencies like tornadoes and severe storms to keep more people safe and ready.

Help us support this vital resource. The moment is now: TPT.org/GiveNow

28/07/2025

As part of Twin Cities PBS, TPT NOW helps reach Minnesotans with vital health, safety, weather, and emergency information in multiple languages. Losing federal funding puts Minnesotans at risk.

Help us keep Minnesotans healthy, safe, and ready. The moment is now: TPT.org/GiveNow

28/07/2025

Science & Weather Model heavy discussion ahead.....

There are still several scenarios on what could happen with storms later today in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and we will take a bit of a deeper dive into some of the modeling within this post. At this point, we are sure everyone has seen the model output from the HRRR yesterday from various outlets showing a potential Derecho over portions of Minnesota this afternoon and evening, including potential winds over 100mph. While this is within the realm of possibility today, it is far from the only potential outcome and taking a single model forecast as fact is a recipe to be disappointed.

The attached picture is from the 12z High-Resolution Ensemble Forecast (HREF) showing what is called Postage Stamps of all the ensemble membership Composite Reflectivity at a specific time, in this case 00z or 7pm this evening. Each box contains a separate model run for a total of 9 different forecasts from 5 different models, which includes two runs of the same models from different time steps, referred to as time-lagged members. As you can see from the forecast reflectivity, there are significant differences in not only location, but also structure and shape of storm reflectivity depending on which model you look at. Even the time lagged members, which are the same models run 12 hours apart, show some fairly significant differences. What this means is there is still low confidence in the placement and timing in regards to storms later, especially as storms currently ongoing in North Dakota will have a large role to play in what happens in Minnesota later on.

So what is actually going to happen? We have plenty of heat and humidity to give us a large amount of instability to work with, so we expect to see thunderstorms today. We also have a large degree of deep-layer atmospheric shear, which would favor a linear storm structure as storms form and move across the region. The atmosphere typically likes to track storms along a gradient of instability, and today that gradient looks to roughly follow the Minnesota River Valley from western MN to Mankato or south-central MN, which is also what the majority (but not all) of the morning guidance is showing as the most likely track to a line of storms. We have the variables in place to produce winds in excess of 80mph, however not everyone who sees storms will see the peak strength.

A few resources to check throughout the day include https://www.weather.gov/forecastpoints # to check your hourly local forecast, https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=MPX&issuedby=MPX&product=AFD&format=CI&version=1&glossary=1 for our latest Area Forecast Discussion (which goes into much greater detail regarding what is talked about here), andhttps://www.weather.gov/media/mpx/DssPacket.pdf for the same information in a graphical format.

Thank you for reading, and please stay safe today!

24/07/2025

An Air Quality Alert has been issued for fine particles pollution, 12AM July 24th, 2025 until 11PM July 25th, 2025. The Air Quality Index
(AQI) is expected to reach the Red or Unhealthy category.

The general public should limit prolonged or heavy exertion, especially sensitive groups such as individuals with asthma, lung or heart disease, was well as children and older adults.

21/07/2025

Congress voted to eliminate public media funding. This decision threatens the future of Twin Cities PBS and the free, essential services we provide every day.

Now more than ever, we must rely on you. Make your gift today: https://bit.ly/3TNAC1S

18/07/2025

17/07/2025