Currently in the Twin Cities — August 12, 2024: Back to normal August weather

The weather, currently.

This week it’s back to normal temperatures: near 80°. Monday will see partly cloudy skies with sunnier skies Tuesday. Dew points will increase to the ‘sticky’ 60s mid to late week which means the chance of thunder increases too Wednesday night into early Friday.

In yet another sign that our cool weather isn’t as cool as it used to be: we still hit 70 on Friday (it looked as though we might stay in the 60s). Sub-70° highs used to occur three times in August on average. Since 2000 the average is just once.

— Sven Sundgaard

What you can do, currently.

A Media Matters analysis found that last year — the hottest calendar year on record — network coverage of climate actually declined in the US. What’s worse, just 12% of reports about climate change mentioned fossil fuels as the driving cause. The media still reported on extreme weather, but stopped short of making the climate connection.

Independent climate journalism like Currently is needed more than ever. And this year, with all of these weather warnings already underway, we’ll unfortunately have plenty of opportunities to do better.