1 week Ago By John Molseed
ROCHESTER — Temperatures in Rochester flirted with an all-time high Sunday as an autumn heatwave brought 80-degree weather to Southeast Minnesota. The temperature at the Rochester International Airport topped at 81 degrees Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, one degree shy of the day’s record 82 set in 1953.
ADVERTISEMENT Near record warmth will stick around through Monday as well, said Alex Ferguson, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in La Crosse. The warm weather took Jasmine Ware and her family by surprise as they headed home after watching the Vikings game. She took a detour past Goose Egg Park.
Her husband Demetri Ware followed and the family had an impromptu afternoon of pickleball matches. Their pickleball paddles and tennis rackets stay in the car year round, they said. “They stay in the trunk,” Demetri siad.
“We even have an extra paddle in case somebody else wants to play.” Demetri said he’s surprised how much he and the kids enjoy the sport, and that they’d have a chance to break a sweat in T-shirts playing in late October. “It’s supposed to be cold, right,” Demetri, a recent Minnesota transplant, asked Jasmine.
Jasmine, a longtime Minnesota resident said she appreciates the late season warm weather but warned Demetri it could mean a longer run of cold temperatures this winter. “That’s been my experience,” she said. “It could be cold for a long time.
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Park, a group of friends played a pick-up game of basketball under autumn leaves. “It’s amazing,” said Tyrone Jon. “I’m loving it out here.
” Although the high of 81 Sunday didn’t tie or set a new record, it’s only the second time the temperature reached or exceeded 80 degrees; the other time being when the record was set in 1953, records show. “The very warm temperatures will hang out here for one more day,” Ferguson said. Monday will bring temperatures in the 80s again.
The record high for Oct. 21 in Rochester is 85. Temperatures are forecast to reach 82 Monday which means the high will likely again fall short of the record.
The near-record high temperatures come a week after the area experienced widespread freezing temperatures. “This is the time of year we get big variability,” Ferguson said. ADVERTISEMENT The lowest high temperature for Oct.
20 is 33 which was set in 1930, he added. “That really just shows you the wide range we can experience this time of year.” Along with near record heat, dry weather is expected to stay in place.
Rochester has slim chances for rain in the next week with rain chances reaching about 15% Tuesday night and again Thursday. However, no chances for significant precipitation are in the near-term forecast, Ferguson said. More than 70% of Minnesota is in moderate drought or drier .
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