Author: Doug

The Auroras are back.

Here are the four best images that I was able to take while having a break in the cloud cover.

WOW, the Northern Lights are back and I have been able to see the glow in the northern sky twice within a week.  Considering they were pretty much gone for the last three year’s, this is pretty cool.

Neva and I left the house just after Ten tonight to head out to the northeast of Saint Cloud where we waited around for about 90 minutes until it was getting late and she had to go home to get some sleep since she had to work in the morning.  We drove in separate trucks just in case I decided to stay out later if the Auroras did finally show up.

Well, after waiting another half hour, just to the southeast of the town of Foley, MN the Aurora started to shine pretty bright with a nice green glow on the horizon for about a half hour until once again the clouds moved in and the Northern Lights faded away.

Here is the Statistical Aurora Map when the light show started to shine after two in the morning here in Minnesota.

I headed up north late last night to go and check out the aurora’s or northern lights.  The cloud cover was the main problem and just after 10:00 PM the cloud cover started to part and clear out for central Minnesota and northern Minnesota and the chase was on.

The plan was to just head north towards Brainerd, MN but the clouds started to move back in and I kept heading north of Gull Lake and then ended up even further north to near Leech Lake, MN.  I was finally able to get into the clear air to watch the Auroras for about a half hour before the clouds moved in.

Why so far to see the strange lights in the sky?  The last time I saw the lights was back in October of 2006.  Yes that is correct, it has been over three and a half year’s since there has been a decent northern lights setup that I was in town for and where the sky was clear enough to see them.

Just a quick note, I have uploaded a lot of new photos to my website in a new gallery for the 2010 spring flooding.
http://weatherpaparazzi.smugmug.com/Weather/Flooding/13781642_TdVNt#1008947780_ydzJ9

Today I was out covering the major flooding that is taking place in North Dakota.  The Wild Rice River is flooding it’s banks and creating major flooding that is impacting eastern Richland County, ND which is just south of the Fargo area near the town of Abercrombie, ND.

Most of the rural roads within a mile of the river are being washed away as the flooding backs up into farmers fields and then spills over the roadways to create a new path for the water to flow.

Today we were out covering the major flooding that is setting up in the Red River Valley to the southeast of the Fargo / Moorhead area as above normal temps rapidly melt off the winter snow pack.

Footage shows the major flooding impacting the Sabin, MN area along the Buffalo River which has burst it’s banks by a half mile in places.

The area was covered with fog and lite rain as the flood waters covered the landscape.  This is a repeat of what happened last year around the same time of the year as the flood waters all flow towards the Red River and up north towards Fargo, ND and Moorhead, MN.

A powerful winter storm hit the Midwest and dumped almost a foot of snow in places in central Minnesota.  The snow caused major traffic delays and hundreds of accidents from Saint Cloud to the Twin Cities metro area. 

Footage shows cars in the ditch, along Interstate 94 and Highway 10 around the Saint Cloud, MN area. The snow totals ranged from five inches to ten inches around the area with a heavy band from Glenwood to west of Saint Cloud and down to Lakeville, MN area.

I got to love the fans that have watched the show I was on and the people that visit my blog pages here and on BNVN.com and or Examiner.com

At the same time I have to wonder about some people that send hate mail and post just the stupid stuff.  If you can’t say it to someones face then why would you post it? 

I was just looking over my Examiner.com page to see if there was any comments made and I saw this one.

Nicole Foster says: I have seen and heard your name for some time now. Doug, you are an jerk who makes money from other peoples misery. Go to hell !

Really?  So what does CNN, Fox News, NBC News, The Weather Channel, ABC News, CBS News, and the rest of the media do?  Oh yeah, they make money from reporting the news which in most cases is bad news.

Some people need to get a life and think about what they post before they post.

Global cooling is in full swing in the Midwest as high temperatures did not even make it above 3F in the Minneapolis, MN metro area today.  The arctic air mass that has moved into the area also brought brisk winds which made it feel more like -21F.   

Overnight Snow Video. B-Roll footage of an overnight snow storm that hit the area of Minneapolis, MN. Video of people out in downtown and footage of snow plows.

Looks like today will be a mass panic at the malls for Christmas Shopping and travel due to a powerful winter weather system setting up in the central part of the United States.  I’m gearing up to go cover the storm that Neva and I joked about with having to do so much stuff over Christmas that watch everything gets shut down due to the weather.   Forecasts are for 20+ inches of snow from Minneapolis to Saint Cloud, MN.