by Northern News Now meteorologist Dave Anderson
The September tornado around here was fairly big by our northern standards. The Enhanced Fujita Scale goes from EF0 which is those ropey little twisters we get around here to EF5 which are the big town wreckers you get in Tornado Alley in the south. Ours was an EF1 that was 200 yards wide and was on the ground for about thirteen minutes. The storm cluster began with a funnel cloud spotted in the Moose Lake area that evolved to radar indicated tornadoes near Proctor. After that, trained spotters saw it on the west side of HWY 53, watched it cross the highway and rip through the woods until it petered out just north of the Comstock Lake Road near Cotton.
The parent storm, though, stayed potent as it headed to Skibo near Hoyt Lakes. My colleague, Hunter McCullough of Brimson was at the Skibo overlook to watch the storm try to head to Babbitt. I hear Babbitt wasn’t hit overly hard, though.
Much of the North Shore was off the stormy hook that day thanks as usual to the cooler, denser air around Lake Superior that split the storms and forced them north. Don’t depend on that to keep us safe from all storms, though! Really strong ones can and do and will punch through our lakeside defenses every now and then.
Extra heat provided by persistent cells of high air pressure provided the fuel for severe weather. I think the risk for such severe weather in October this year is pretty low. It can happen, though. Remember the tornado outbreak in October, 2021? Late twisters also hit the Mesabi Range in the early 1900’s.
The reason that severe weather is unlikely is twofold: strong storms need heat and October 2024 looks to be cooler than normal by the average of one degree. Rain could go one inch over normal so we have a pretty good chance for autumn snow rather than autumn tornadoes.
October 1 to 6 may be showery and cool. October 7-10 should be sunny and mild making for good fall color watching and grouse hunting, The 11th to 15th should stay mild but turn rainy. The 16th to the 22nd will become cold and potentially snowy – or at least a rain and snow mix. Cool conditions and rain snow mixes will run out the rest of the month.
