With the first official day of autumn less than one month away, Mother Nature is preparing Borderland for the weather that lies ahead.
After a few weeks of hot, humid temperatures, this week’s overnight lows of around 50 degrees have greeted residents in the morning with the reminder – fall is on its way.
But according to Melody Lovin, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Duluth, don’t trade the flip flops for wool sweaters just yet. As the Labor Day weekend approaches, Lovin said temperatures are expected to be in the mid-to-upper 70s, but forecasts show a chance of rain and thunderstorms each afternoon of the long weekend.
“There is a chance of rain or thunderstorms every day,” she told The Journal Thursday. “Sunday afternoon and evening, we are expecting quite a bit of rain.”
A strong, westerly system will push through just in time for Labor Day Monday carrying with it the possibility of more severe weather.
Welcome, fall — or not
While some residents may be reluctant to welcome the season of cooler temperatures, changing colors and shorter days with open arms, others are embracing the ideas of hooded-sweatshirts, bird hunting and time at the shack. Last year, however, Lovin reminds Borderland fall came sooner than it will this year.
“By this time last year, we had already issued freeze warnings,” she said of the NWS. “We haven’t had any deep freezes yet this year.”
And even though to some it may seem like summer in International Falls was cut short because of the flooding in early June, last year, the weather was “all over the place,” according to Lovin.
“We had freeze warnings, heat warnings, the weather was everywhere,” she said of summer’s final month. “This year, August is actually about 2 degrees below normal for temperatures and 2 inches below normal for rainfall.”
And, she said, it isn’t uncommon to start seeing lows in the mid 50s.
“What we’re experiencing now is not very unusual,” she said.
What’s to come
Speaking of unusual, it is likely some have the fear that last year’s colder-than-normal winter will repeat itself this year. Lovin, however, reassured it doesn’t appear this winter will mimic what Borderland experienced last season.
“Last year was probably something you only see once in your lifetime,” the meteorologist said of the second coldest winter on record. “No matter what, (this winter) will likely be warmer than last year.”
She attributed the trend toward El Niño, which is progressively developing, she said. El Niño is associated with a band of warm ocean water temperatures that periodically develops off the Pacific coast of South America.
“It is still a little early to tell, we don’t quite have our outlooks done yet, but that is the trend,” Lovin said.
Either way, those who live, work and play in the Icebox of the Nation know summer can’t last forever. Winter will arrive, it will still be cold, but summer will return once again, hopefully with less water next time.
