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Meteor Shower Tonight

January 3, 2012 by · Comments Off on Meteor Shower Tonight 

Meteor Shower TonightMeteor Shower Tonight, Warm air aloft will begin to move into our area today, heralding the beginning of a warm-up that should become very noticeable on Thursday and Friday of this week, when we could see highs in the 40’s once again. However, for today we’ll have to be content with a high in the upper 20’s…still cool, but at least we will be back above average. With partly cloudy skies expected overnight tonight, we will have the chance to see a nice show in the sky tomorrow morning. Astronomers are predicting a brief two hour meteor shower Wednesday morning, between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. Central Time. The Quandrantids, or “Quads” as most people call them, are named for an old constellation called Quadrans Muralis. This particular meteor shower will come from the remnants of a comet named 2003EH1, which is thought to have broken up sometime during the past 500 years. The tiny particles of rock that remain will enter the earth’s atmosphere at 90,000 mph, burning up 50 miles above the surface and creating “falling stars” for us to see. Scientists expect over 100 “shooting stars” per hour, meaning at least 1-2 per minute during that 2-hour window tomorrow morning…so consider waking up early tomorrow, and enjoying that morning cup of coffee out on your deck as you watch the show overhead!

Our numbers from Monday included a high temperature of 18 degrees, while our low dipped to 6 degrees (the average temperatures for January 2 are 24 and 4 degrees). No precipitation was observed. Our peak wind gust was 17 mph from the north, just before 12 noon. Current conditions this morning include a temperature of 8 degrees, winds from the SE at 2 mph, and a falling barometer with 30.28 inches of pressure. The river is 5.00 feet deep.

Weather records on the books for today include a high temperature of 45 degrees (set in 1984), a low of -25 degrees (from 2010), and two precipitation records from back in 1906 (9.0″ of snow, and 0.76″ of moisture).

According to the National Weather Service, on this date back in 1977, heavy snow fell in southern Minnesota, with 14.2 inches reported in Mankato. Then in 1981 arctic air caused the temperatures to plunge across northern Minnesota. Embarass, Wannaska, and Tower all reported -38 degrees for an overnight low.

In Chaska on this date last year, we saw a high temperature of 19 degrees and a low of -9 degrees. We received 0.6″ of snow, which contained 0.02″ of moisture. Our snow cover was 9 inches. The river was 15.13 feet deep.

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