St. Cloud Braces For Historic October Heat Wave This Weekend

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- We may hit high temperatures in the lower 90s this weekend. If that happens, it will be the latest date on record that St. Cloud has ever had a 90-degree day.

The National Weather Service is forecasting highs around 90 degrees on Friday and Saturday. The record high in St. Cloud on either of those days is 88 degrees.

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St. Cloud has only had four October days with highs in the 90s, all of which were on the first two days of the month.

October 1st - 91 in 2023
October 2nd - 90 in 1952, 1992, and 2023

The normal high temperature in St. Cloud on October 3rd and 4th is 64 degrees.

Our run of summer weather will continue through Sunday before cooling back down to near normal for next week. Little or no rain is expected for the next 7 days.

Temperatures in the 90s could make it an uncomfortable weekend for the Twin Cities Marathon. Joe Calderone of the National Weather Service says fall weather is normally one of the main attractions of this event:

("That plays a part in why so many runners like to run in this one. Because you expect to have cooler temperatures, and the warmer and more humid conditions, that also just makes it uncomfortable for running a marathon up here this time of year.")

The 10-K and 5-K are on Saturday, and the Twin Cities Marathon is on Sunday. Around 30 thousand runners are expected to take part in this year's races.

Unseasonably warm weather is slowing the sugarbeet harvest in west-central Minnesota. Noah Hultgren of Raymond says the local beet cooperative typically starts full harvest by the beginning of October:

(With the warm weather that we’re having right now, they don’t like to store beets with that warm of temps. So they’re looking to push back the full harvest to Monday, October 6th.)

Hultgren says the forecast looks more favorable next week:

(Looks like the weather starts to cool down a little bit, which would be better for storage)

Hultgren also grows corn, soybeans, and edible beans. He says the warm, dry weather is aiding harvest progress for those crops.