Author: Karl Spring

Friday Evening Northland Forecast: 8/29/2025

A Perfect Labor Day Weekend

When you consider a long holiday weekend (Friday thru Monday), you hope that at least half the days will be nice. But, to get 3 or 4 decent weather days over that timespan? That seems unlikely. Yet, that is exactly what we are in store for, this Labor Day Holiday Weekend! There is a stationary front off to our southwest,…

Sunday Evening Northland Forecast: 8/24/2025

Frost Advisory Overnight

It’s always a little shocking the first time in late summer, when we hear about cold temps on the way, or a chance for frost, or even SNOW? Well, we don’t have to worry about the fluffy, white stuff just yet. But, for overnight tonight, a Frost Advisory has been issued for Koochiching county, and the northern two-thirds of St….

Friday Evening Northland Forecast: 8/22/2025

Here Comes Cooler Air

Summer is trying it’s best to stick around. Speaking of sticky, we hit a high of at least 80 in Duluth today, with dewpoints still in the 60s. Yes, still muggy. You wear the air like it’s a wet shirt. I don’t like it. But, that’s going to change before we all go to sleep tonight. Right now, there is…

Thursday Evening Northland Forecast: 8/21/2025

A Cooler Weekend On The Way

The days are getting shorter. The angle of incoming solar radiation (insolation) is getting lower in the sky. And, it’s getting a little cooler outside. Yeah, summer is winding down. We all knew it was going to happen. We just hoped the summer might last a little bit longer. Our high temp in Duluth today was 78 degrees, which is…

Friday Evening Northland Forecast: 8/8/2025

A Steamy Friday Night

There will be no complaining about the heat and humidity we have today, or will have for much of this weekend. Because, in 7 weeks, October will be here, and then you may be wishing for days like this. With high temps in the low to mid 80s today, the dew points were very high. The dew point in Duluth…

Thursday Evening Northland Forecast: 7/31/2025

One More Smoky Day

With this current bout with dirty smoke from Canadian wildfires, we have one more intolerable day to put up with. The conditions on Friday will be unhealthy for pretty much all of us in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. For that matter, the Air Quality Alert also extends into Iowa, eastern Nebraska, and northern Illinois. There are millions of us sharing…

Wednesday Evening Northland Forecast: 7/30/2025

Sun, Smoke and 70's

Except for all the smoke in the air (from Canada), this would be a very nice summer week! The average high is 78 degrees, and after the hot and humid weekend we just endured, our high temps in the mid and upper 70’s feels just great! Generally, this entire week has been mostly sunny, with light winds, and highs in…

Friday Evening Northland Forecast: 7/25/2025

Sunny Saturday, Showery Sunday

Another Friday, another day of waiting for the Air Quality Alert to expire. This time, the Alert is set to expire at 11pm tonight (Friday). This alert includes the entire Northland, of northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and most of the U.P. of Michigan. So, it’s effecting, literally, millions of people. There’s going to be a time, later this summer, when…

Friday Evening Northland Forecast: 7/18/2025

A Sunny and Smoky Weekend

Our summer of discontent with the smoke from distant fires continues. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has issued a plethora of air quality alerts for this coming weekend, from Saturday at 1pm til Monday morning at 9am. Those hours are subject to change. Last weekend, they ended up extending some alerts until 11pm Monday night. But for now, the…

One Suspect In Custody, One On The Run After Convenient Store Robbery in Cloquet

CLOQUET, Minn. – Cloquet Police say one of the two suspect connected to a robbery at a Kwik Trip this past weekend is in custody, while the other remains on the run. Police arrested a 16-year-old male without incident in Wrenshall just after 6 p.m. Saturday evening.  A search of that area found items connected to the robbery.  The individual is…

Friday Evening Northland Forecast: 7/4/2025

A Stormy Friday Night

It was crazy hot today….everywhere, but in Superior, Wisconsin. In every direction from Superior, temps were in the upper 80s and lower 90s, with dew points in the upper 60s to around 70. Yeah, jungle-like. But, in Superior, with a wind from the east, it was significantly cooler. I know, because I was there, reporting for FOX 21’s coverage of…

Friday Evening Northland Forecast: 6/27/2025

Some Storms Out West

A week ago tonight, we had some wild weather here in the Twin Ports. A late night filled with showers, thunderstorms, and even a few tornado sightings (mainly radar indicated). In the 50 years I’ve been watching the weather in Minnesota, I have learned that weather tends to go in 7-day cycles at this latitude. Not always, of course, but…

Wednesday Morning Northland Forecast: 6/18/2025

A Sunny Wednesday

The Summer Solstice arrives on Friday, at 9:42 pm (Duluth time). That is when the sun takes its northernmost path in the sky, giving us the longest day of the year. This will be the beginning of “Astronomical Summer,” as opposed to “Meteorological Summer,” which started on June 1st. This coming weekend is also pretty famous for something else, and…

Tuesday Morning Northland Forecast: 6/17/2025

A Calmer Day

The showers finally got here yesterday, along with thunderstorms, torrential rains, and a few tornadoes. Duluth only got .12″ of rain, and Superior a measly .07″. But to our north, Grand Rapids got 1.25″ of rain, and Hibbing got hit with 2.36″ of rain last evening, producing some flooding in the area. They could use a couple dry days of…

Monday Morning Northland Forecast: 6/16/2025

Storms Out West Heading This Way

As we all get ready to take on another Monday, showers and thunderstorms are already all fired up, and rumbling across eastern North Dakota. They will soon move across the Red River Valley, and head into western Minnesota, on their way to the Northland. Things will stay quiet in our area until lunchtime, but then it will be time to…

Friday Morning Northland Forecast: 6/13/2025

Cloudy, Cool, Windy & Wet Weekend

This weekend will not feel very summer-like. The average high for today is 72 degrees. We will have highs in the 50s today and Saturday, and in the low 60s on Sunday. We won’t get back to the 70s until Monday.  Thanks to a strong low pressure system to our southwest, we are going to stay mainly cloudy, cool, windy…

Thursday Morning Northland Forecast: 6/12/2025

Back to the 50s

We hit 74 degrees for a high yesterday, and it felt great! Our average high is only 71, so we were just a touch above average…which I always think is good! Except for some Canadian wildfire smoke that came in after noon yesterday, it was a very nice day! Now, we’re going to take a few steps backwards, in the…

Wednesday Morning Northland Forecast: 6/11/2025

Sunny and Warm Today!

Today will be a perfect June day! The average high for today is 71, and we will be a touch above that, with a high of 74 under sunny skies! What a great day to spend some time on the Lakewalk, or one of our local golf courses, or just hanging out in the backyard. These are the days we…

Friday Evening Northland Forecast: 6/6/2025

A Half Dry Weekend

After getting almost a half inch of rain earlier today (Friday), the skies are clearing out now, and any smoke that came in overnight is about to head off to the northeast, too. We have an air quality alert til 7oo pm today, for most of northeast Minnesota, but that problem is going to evaporate quickly, as cool, dry and…

Wednesday Evening Northland Forecast: 6/4/2025

Blue Skies Are Back

Thank you, Jetstream! The Air Quality Alerts for Minnesota and Wisconsin have been allowed to expire. There is one more alert in effect for the rest of today, for Gogebic and Ontonagon counties in the far western portion of the U.P. of Michigan. Otherwise, we have the ‘all clear,’ for now. It is likely that we’ll be feeling the effects…

Tuesday Evening Northland Forecast: 6/3/2025

Starting to Clear

While the Air Quality Alert for the entire state of Minnesota is still in effect til noon on Wednesday, we are starting to see some light at the end of the smoky tunnel. It is cloudy and rainy and smoky across much of Wisconsin today. The best part of that is the rain, of course. The rain has pretty much…

Monday Evening Northland Forecast: 6/2/2025

Air Quality Getting Worse

The air quality in the Northland continues to worsen, as more wildfires take place, and spread in central and western Canada. Most of the smoke we are getting comes from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. But actually, half the provinces in Canada have forest fires blazing right now. We will not see this end anytime soon. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency just…

Friday Evening Northland Forecast: 5/30/2025

Smoky Weekend

Yes, the air is very smoky. And, it’s particularly noticeable in the mornings, and in the evenings. It makes for weird sky colors in the morning, and some spectacular sunsets in the evenings. It is all due, of course, to more than 1,200 wildfires burning in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. Because of all that smoke, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency…