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Storms Likely Much of this Week

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 13:10:10 GMT

Following record rainfall in Miami and the wettest day of the year so far, more rain is ahead Sunday and potentially everyday this week.It’s all thanks to a front that was stalled across central Florida on Saturday, trapping plenty of moisture across the region. Despite this front being farther away and lifting to the north and east as a warm front, we will remain in the steamy and moist sector of a low pressure system moving across the Southeast. This will make for favorable conditions for seeing afternoon showers and thunderstorms this Sunday. At least for the morning, it should be mostly dry with a mix of sun and clouds. This sunshine will drive up highs into the low to mid 90s.Monday will be a fiarly similar day with showers and thunderstorms likely, especially in the afternoon, as the cold front on the backside of this low pressure moves into central Florida. Winds will have a westerly steering component to them, helping to guide storms toward the east coast metro, with t...

Sun Sunday, rain returns Monday

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 13:10:10 GMT

We’ve arrived at the better half of the weekend. We’ll see bright skies for most of the day and temperatures will reach the upper 70s/near 80° for MetroWest. Rain returns overnight into tomorrow. After that, the rest of the week is dry and comfortable.Lee moves on and brief ridging aloft today provides dry conditions. You look on radar and satellite to our southwest and you see scattered showers. That moisture will lift into Southern New England overnight into tomorrow.Enjoy today! It’s a refreshing, fall-like start with morning low temperatures in the 50s and dew points that haven fallen into the 40s.Bright skies prevail this morning. Temperatures reach the upper 70s inland and mid 70s for Cape Cod. High clouds build in later ahead of tomorrow’s rain.As Lee moves on, there’s still a risk for rip currents, especially on our north and east facing beaches.Scattered storms are with us tomorrow. Downpours are expected with any of these storms. Some towns co...

Four most important Patriots players in Week 2 against the Dolphins

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 13:10:10 GMT

FOXBORO — Week 2 might be slightly early to declare a game a “must-win,” but the Patriots’ outlook will appear much better if they can beat the Dolphins on Sunday night.The Patriots lost a close one to the Eagles that might be categorized differently if “moral victories” counted in the standings. But that performance last week means nothing if the Patriots can’t improve upon it as the season progresses.Stringing wins together against the Dolphins in Week 2 and the Jets without Aaron Rodgers in Week 3 would make fans forget about a frustrating Week 1 result.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Patriots roster moves indicate good news for offensive line injuries New England Patriots | NFL Notes: The Patriots can start to prove themselves again Sunday night New England Patriots | Patriots’ starting offensive line situation is a mess for second straight week New England Patriots | Patr...

Skywatch: Celestial dot-to-dot puzzles

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 13:10:10 GMT

When you gaze upon the night sky, especially in the dark skies of the countryside, you can see all kinds of people and creatures up there. In September, you’ll find a disgraced hunter turned hero, two bears, another mighty hunter chasing the big bear, a swan, a giant scorpion, a dolphin, a harp, a stretched-out dragon, and a winged horse. If you can honestly see all of them as what they’re supposed to be, you either have a great imagination, or you’re a big liar! The vast majority of constellations don’t look like what they’re supposed to be, not even close in some cases.Constellations are just like dot-to-dot puzzles in a kid’s coloring book. Unlike the coloring book, though, the stars that make up the dots vary in brightness, and there are no numbers by the stars. We have to decide what stars to connect with our mind’s eye.(Mike Lynch)Just as people do now, our ancestors tried to make sense of the randomness of the multitude of stars that greeted them every night. They connected t...

Readers and writers: A treasured local poet launches her latest collection

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 13:10:10 GMT

(Lynx House Press)When Deborah Keenan reads from her new poetry collection Saturday at Hamline University, the Klas Center is sure to be filled with her writing students past and present, fellow poets and friends to listen to Keenan read in her mesmerizing voice from “The Saint of Everything.”Saints hover over many of the poems in Keenan’s 11th book: The Saint of Abandoned Nurseries, the Saint of Maps, the Saints of Common Murders and of Childhood. Her publisher, Lynx House Press, describes this collection as “poems of deep sentiment, and certain collisions of memory and imagination, poems that respect melancholy, and poems that deepen our understanding of betrayal and tenderness. (It is) about decades of thinking, feeling, considering what living might really mean and what a person does or doesn’t do to protect one’s spirit, one’s soul.”There are tough poems here, too, including one in which a couple finds a dead child in a tree, and ...

Denmark Township man raises money for native Morocco after devastating earthquake

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 13:10:10 GMT

As soon as Hassan Sahouani heard the news about an earthquake hitting his native country of Morocco, he called his sister in Marrakech.Jamila Sahouani immediately began sending videos of the damage caused by the 6.8-magnitude quake. At least 2,900 people are reported to have died in the Sept. 8 earthquake, but the death toll continues to rise as search and rescue teams comb through mountains of rubble.“It’s a disaster,” said Sahouani, who lives in Denmark Township in southern Washington County. “Nobody can prepare for this, especially with a magnitude of 6.8. People are not prepared, and no government can be prepared for something like that because it’s overwhelming.”Sahouani’s niece, Romaysa Sahouani, teaches French and Arabic in a mountain village near the epicenter. Five of her colleagues were killed in the earthquake, and the school no longer exists, he said.Damage done to the apartment building where Hassan Sahouani’s niece, Romaysa Sahouani, lived in Mo...

Finn Sisu founder hands off ski shop to longtime employees after 45 years

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 13:10:10 GMT

If you cross-country ski in Minnesota, you’ve probably heard of Ahvo Taipale, the Finnish founder of Finn Sisu and former coach of the University of Minnesota women’s Nordic ski team.An icon in the Nordic ski community both in Minnesota and abroad, Taipale decided to sell his ski and sauna shop this summer after a 45-year run. Finn Sisu now belongs to three longtime employees: Karen Weium, Tom Novak and Nate Rhode.Weium said it took about 2½ years for the trio to buy out Taipale, who was looking for his next adventure in life.“I am pushing 80 years of age and I think it is time that younger people run the show,” Taipale said, adding that he “enjoyed every minute of it.”From left, Karen Weium, Tom Novak and Nate Rhode officially took over Finn Sisu in Lauderdale in July. Longtime owner Ahvo Taipale is at right. (Courtesy of Finn Sisu)Born in Finland, Taipale said he learned how to cross-country ski at the age of 2 and it was his main form of transportation to ...

Literary calendar for week of Sept. 17

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 13:10:10 GMT

GARY HEYN: Presents “Standing at the Grave: A Family’s Journey from the Grand Duchy of Posen to the Prairies of North Dakota” in conversation with Carla Hagen. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19, SubText Books, 6 W. Fifth St., St. Paul.Jacqueline Holland (Courtesy of the author)JACQUELINE HOLLAND: Minnesotan discusses her debut novel “The God of Endings,” chosen by six publications as one of the most anticipated of the season. It tells the story of Collette, headmistress of an exclusive arts school in upstate New York. She is a 150-year-old vampire who keeps her blood lust under control until a gifted student enters her life. In-person, presented by Club Book, a program of Metro Public Libraries (MELSA). Free. 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, Riverview Library, 1 E. George St., St. Paul.SONYA HUBER: Presents “Love and Industry” in conversation with Kate Hopper. 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.ROB JUNG: Robert J...

With ‘The [Uncertain] Four Seasons,’ classical musicians and St. Kate student poets tackle climate change

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 13:10:10 GMT

To respond to climate change and call for action, St. Catherine University students will present original poetry later this month onstage at The O’Shaughnessy, alongside new music that uses climate data to reinterpret classical concertos.“The [Uncertain] Four Seasons” is a re-composition of Antonio Vivaldi’s famous four-part piece, put through an algorithm that changes the music based on geospatial predictions for the year 2050, drawn from a report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Rising surface temperatures alter the tempo; ocean temps alter the pitch; sea level data changes the mode, or base scale; species decline increases the length of silent rests.At St. Kate’s, the algorithmic version and Vivaldi’s original will be juxtaposed against each other in a new arrangement by Emily Isaacson of the organization Classical Uprising and Jesse Irons, a Grammy-nominated violinist. The performance will also feature the Minnesota Opera Orches...

St. Paul, Ramsey County still at impasse over riverfront zoning rules due to RiversEdge project

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 13:10:10 GMT

When the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources mandated that cities along some 72 miles of the Mississippi River rewrite height standards for new real estate development, among other zoning rules near the water, the city of St. Paul was among the first to raise its hand and volunteer to lead the way.Fast-forward seven years, and St. Paul’s new riverfront zoning code appears stuck in a kind of planning limbo, even as at least 19 other cities have finalized or nearly wrapped up their new zoning ordinances.In January 2020, the DNR informed St. Paul that it had a year to adopt a riverfront zoning ordinance. Some of that work was waylaid by the pandemic. The city finally held a public hearing on draft language in January of this year, but there’s been no visible progress since.So what’s the holdup?Nicolle Goodman, director of St. Paul Planning and Economic Development, said Wednesday that she had called for further analysis on how the city’s draft rules —...