Did you feel the heat Monday?.

Tuesday, May 15, 2001

Did you feel the heat Monday?

Austin set a record for the date, when the thermometer topped out at 90 degrees, eclipsing the record of 89 set more than a half-century ago, in 1949.

So much for spring. It seems we’ve gone right from winter into summer. Wasn’t there snow on the ground just weeks ago?

Much of southern Minnesota also experienced summerlike conditions Monday as temperatures soared even higher than the mercury in Austin – into the high 90s.

National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Scott said four Minnesota cities – Appleton, Litchfield, Maple Lake and Montevideo – felt temperatures reach 99 degrees. In the Twin Cities, the high of 94 was one degree shy of the record for May 14, set in 1932.

Scott said the Twin Cities’ average high on May 14 is 69 degrees.

For the Austin area, today’s high was expected to top out around 90 degrees again, but things should cool down back to the low 80s for Wednesday, according to the staff at KIMT’s Storm Team 3.

So, after a winter filled with freezing temperatures and a seemingly endless snowfall and a spring that’s been mostly soggy, what’s behind this wacky weather?

Scott said that in the spring, the jet stream fluctuates back and forth. In the winter, it usually stays south of Minnesota.

"Once summer settles in, we are not going to have as much variation," Scott said. "That’s when the jet stream stays north of us."

Call Chuck Gysi at 434-2230 or e-mail him at chuck.gysi@austindailyherald.com.