Star Tribune
Hottest day yet of 2023 will take stage in Twin Cities
Summer’s sizzle is about to take hold of the Twin Cities, with temperatures reaching the mid-90s on the doorstep.
The first hint comes Sunday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), when the afternoon high is forecast to reach 89 degrees under mostly sunny skies and a light breeze.
By early afternoon, at the newly resurrected Taste of Minnesota festival on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, the temperature was 85 and the sunshine made it feel even warmer. So much so that thousands of attendees were using the shade of skyscrapers as protection from the heat, said spokesman Blois Olson.
“I think these are the kinds of days we remember in January,” Olson said of the free event, for which 60,000 passes were distributed. “People are excited to be here. It’s busy, and we expect thousands of people over the course of the day.”
As a precaution, Olson said monitors were out walking the 10-square-block Taste area to keep an eye out for anyone struggling with the higher temperatures. A bevy of beverage vendors helped keep the lines shorter for something cool to drink, he said.
On Monday, the heat is expected to dial up a notch with an anticipated afternoon high of 95, the NWS said.
“Dew points will be moist but not oppressive” on Monday, according to an NWS forecast statement posted Sunday morning, “so heat indices shouldn’t be too much hotter than the air temp.”
There’s also no indication of smoky conditions adding to the discomfort as has been experienced in recent weeks in the Twin Cities that were caused by wildfires hundreds of miles away in Canada.
While 95 would fall far short of the Twin Cities’ hottest July 3, when the temperature touched 100 in 1990, we should be in store for our hottest day yet this year. The weather service said we’ve warmed up to 92 degrees four times in 2023: June 4, 21, 22 and 23.
A chance of thunderstorms Monday night and again on Tuesday — the July Fourth holiday — is expected to pull the mercury down a fair bit to a high topping out at 88.
From there, conditions are expected to cool down even more. High temperatures Wednesday and Thursday should peak at no more than 77 degrees, the weather service said.
When the Minnesota Supreme Court this week declined to hear an appeal by the University of St. Thomas regarding the environmental impact of its new hockey/basketball arena under construction, neighbor and arena foe Dan Kennedy said the “ethical” thing for the university to do was stop construction until neighbor concerns are addressed.
Not going to happen, university officials said Thursday.
While a public review of a revised Environmental Assessment Worksheet continues through Nov. 7, construction of the 5,000-seat Lee and Penny Anderson Arena continues. In an e-mail Thursday, a university spokesman said the arena is expected to be completed in fall 2025.
“The University of St. Thomas is aware of the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision to deny its petition to appeal and is reviewing the potential impacts of this decision,” an emailed statement from St. Thomas said. “Last week, the City of St. Paul published an updated EAW for public comment, and that process will continue. Construction of the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena will also continue, as permitted by law.”
But Kennedy said he believes that decision is not only wrong, but illegal. Because the state Court of Appeals this summer ruled the project’s first environmental review was inadequate, its site plans and building permits are invalid, said the president of Advocates for Responsible Development.
“We need somebody to specifically tell the University of St. Thomas that they must comply with the law,” Kennedy said. “This is an institution of higher learning, with a law school. They should comply with the law.”
Kennedy said he thought the Minnesota Court of Appeals had insisted on exactly that. In August, the appellate court ordered the city and university to conduct a new Environmental Assessment Worksheet. The previous assessment didn’t do enough to study the arena’s potential harm to the neighborhood’s parking, traffic and air quality, the court ruled.
“The reason why is that more sunlight in the morning time helps reinforce waking up, and having less light in the evening is less stimulation,” he said. “So when we’re winding down, preparing for sleep, having fewer hours of sunlight in the evening can help promote that process of falling asleep.”
Akingbola acknowledges that it can be sad to walk out of work or school when it’s already dark out, but in the long run, standard time is the way to go.
The U.S. already tried daylight savings year round in 1974
Despite the medical advice, there have been calls in recent years to make daylight savings time permanent.
Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, tried to pass a bill as recently as 2021 to make daylight savings time permanent, but it did not pass the Legislature.
The U.S. tried once before. According to Minnesota Star Tribune archives, due to an energy crisis, President Richard Nixon passed a law in January 1974 that made daylight savings a year-round thing.
A month into it, the Minneapolis Tribune ran an article saying there were calls to reverse the decision because there were more accidents in the pre-dawn darkness, particularly involving school children waiting for the bus. Under daylight savings time in January, sunrise wasn’t until well after 8 a.m. in Minnesota.
Karl-Anthony Towns may be in New York City, but his heart is in Minnesota.
On Wednesday night, Towns had some sweet seats for a Billie Eilish show at Madison Square Garden with his partner, Jordyn Woods, when she caught him watching the Timberwolves play the Chicago Bulls in a preseason game on his phone. Her video, posted to her Instagram story, made rounds on social media Thursday.
In the video, flames are literally spewing out from Eilish’s stage, lights are flashing all around and others in the crowd are head bobbing. And there is Towns, holding his phone in both hands and muttering to himself as the Timberwolves are down 88-75 late in the third quarter in a meaningless game.
“I promise he was enjoying the concert,” Woods wrote in the video’s caption.
The Wolves would go on to lose that game, 125-123. A nail-biter.
Towns’ trade to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle and others stunned the NBA world and all of Minnesota, where he was a beloved player for nine seasons and a leader on a team rapidly ascending toward championship contention.
“It was a lot of emotions,” Towns said. “Some amazing moments and times in nine years of my life in Minnesota, a place that I’ve called home. Guys who are not just teammates to me but brothers. We were like brothers. It definitely was a wild day, definitely coming to work.”
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