SerpApi.Org
Our weather in Minnesota has been nothing short of brutal for the past several weeks. According to the Twin Cities National Weather Service, we've hit 90 degrees or higher for the tenth consecutive day, putting this stretch squarely in third longest all time.
That heat matters, especially up north, as crews work to battle wildfires in and near the Boundary Waters.
"Yesterday, we did have some very dry, windy conditions on the fire," fire officials said in a Facebook post update Tuesday. "But it's gonna be really windy today."
Temperatures have begun to cool since last week. Officials on Friday said temps reached 104 degrees at one point, rare for that part of the state.
"I don't think I need to tell you all that this is unprecedented," Jason Loomis, Incident Commander for the National Incident Management Organization, Team Three, said. "That's the kind of stuff we see in Arizona, in dry, arid climates, not up here in upstate Minnesota."
That's a sentiment shared by the University of St. Thomas' Dr. John Abraham.
"This isn't just a 2026 thing," he said. "It's becoming a much more regular occurrence."
Abraham is an engineering professor at UST and an expert on climate change.
"There's a scientific term I like to use," he said, talking about Minnesota's weather. "It's called bonkers."
"It's really a combination of two ingredients: lightning to start the fire, and the heat and dryness to really make it grow."
Air quality has improved after smokey haze covered much of the state last week.
But according to fire officials, fires could burn until it begins to snow.
"It is mind-boggling how hard it's going to be to put these fires out, and, you know, we've got the potential that they'll reignite throughout the summer," Abraham said. "This isn't just a weekend fire. This is a 2026 fire."
Abraham says people are part of the cause, as we've released heat-trapping gases over decades. Changing the pattern and trend, he says, also starts with us.
"We have to adapt to a new climate," he said. "We can't unring the bell, but we can create a society that is better able to handle these kind of weather disasters."
