Bob CollinsHaving listened to NPR coverage of Hurricane Michael this morning, it just wasn’t registering. “The city of Tallahassee, known for its extensive tree canopy, says ‘thousands of trees are down,’ causing widespread damage and blocked roads,” but I couldn’t figure out what the reporter was trying to convey. “Dozens of houses on the narrow strip Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Weather
There was nothing happening in the sugar beet section of Minnesota on Wednesday. The yards at the sugar beet factory in Crookston were empty, the machines were silent. There were no trucks. Along the fields from Ada into Crookston, harvesters, combines, and trailers sit idled. It’s been raining and snowing and the harvest is on hold.
Read more →
We have some more footage of the tornadoes that struck parts of southern Minnesota last month, this time an EF-1 tornado in Waterville, Minn. Read more →
Alberta got hammered by an early-season snowstorm. Calgary is paralyzed. For over 10 hours, people were huddled in vehicles stuck in ditches and on Highway 1, impassable because of the snow.
Professional trumpeter Jens Lindemann did what he could to pass the time . Read more →
The city of Faribault, which had asked gawkers to stay away, has posted this video of the destruction and while there are some planes that can be repaired, the majority shown are likely to be totaled out by the insurance companies. Read more →
The weather constantly reminds us of how one minute you can have something, and a minute later you’ve got nothing. Read more →
An airplane hangar is no match for a tornado; they’re just a few steel beams and a bunch of tin. Read more →
Anderson Cooper, the CNN host, is pushing back against those who are saying he didn’t cover the conditions of Hurricane Florence. Read more →
It’s not terribly surprising to see all of the stories about abandoned dogs in the South, left to fend for themselves in Hurricane Florence by people who had weeks to prepare. Fortunately, there are decent people among them. Read more →
We admit to being shameless hurricane voyeurs, repeatedly clicking webcam images from the Outer Banks of North Carolina .
At this point, there’s little human activity on any of them. Just the ocean trying to wipe out any evidence of an allegedly advanced civilization. Read more →
The reason we know what Hurricane Florence is doing, is because a small group of people got up this morning, as in previous mornings, and flew an airplane into it. Read more →
Maybe it’s time to stop building houses at the beach? Read more →
Given the comparative scarcity of rain in the Twin Cities and our metro-centric ways, the amazing flooding in southeast Minnesota and southwest Wisconsin is almost happening in secret.
Read more →
The schedule-makers for Major League Baseball should come visit Minnesota. If they would, they might understand why some Minnesota Twins officials are shaking their heads after looking at the 2019 schedule, which was revealed to the rest of us today. Read more →
Keep your fireworks, the big show in the sky this week was last night’s wall cloud in Detroit Lakes, Minn. Read more →