Denise Isaac was working in Washington, D.C., when I met her at the “Understanding Violent Weather” conference in April. She has since joined WeatherNation in Excelsior, Minn., a suburb of the Twin Cities.
She sent me this report a few days before a tornado struck Minneapolis:
“This summer has been one of Minnesota’s coolest summers of all-time. It is my first, but everyone kept saying, ‘It is never this cold here in July.’ Our first 90° day this summer was around August 12th… July 2009 was the 2nd coolest in weather history in the area and the tornado season also started out late. Normally the Twin Cities/Chanhassen NWS issues its first tornado watch/warning in May, but this year we didn’t have one until the end of June so it has been a slow severe weather season around the area.”