Minnesota

What defines a heat wave?

Published

10 months ago

May 14, 2025

Minnesota is in the midst of a sizzling stretch of summer-like weather. Something unique for this time of year.

A packed Nokomis Beach, soaked in sunshine and steaming close to 90 degrees, would make you think it’s a mid-summer day. But it’s just mid-May.

Several beachgoers WCCO talked with described the day as hot but bearable thanks to a lake breeze.

Still, temperatures that feel like late July for a four-day stretch had them calling it a heat wave.

What defines a heat wave?

“I think it’s in the eye of the beholder,” said Ken Blumenfeld, a senior climatologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), a heat wave is a “period of abnormally hot weather generally lasting more than two days. Heat waves can occur with or without high humidity.”

There was no specific temperature listed, but the NWS added that a heat wave often involves dangerously hot weather that could harm people.

Blumenfeld looks at heat waves from a statistical perspective. “In climatology it’s just extreme warmth relative to the time of year,” he said.

May 11 to May 14, the daily high temperature hit or was forecasted to land around 90 degrees. The average high for this time of year is around 67 to 68 degrees according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That means the Twin Cities is running least 20 degrees warmer than usual.

“If it’s supposed to be like 60 right now but right now, we’re having all this heat, it’s gotta be a heat wave,” said Ambuskah Little Voice while at the beach with friends.

Blumenfeld also understands that public health workers have their own definition.

“[They] might consider a heat wave to be something that could cause human bodies to have problems keeping itself cool naturally,” said Blumenfeld.

That’s usually in peak summer when high humidity combines with high temperatures, creating dangerous conditions leading to heat stroke and exhaustion.

“Heat during late May and even late September and October tends to be really dry compared to the kind of heat you get in July and August,” said Blumenfeld.

If nights are comfortably cool, is it still a heat wave?

“That’s where it gets a little iffy,” Blumenfeld said.

A heat wave in mid-summer could have nights in the 70s while the air remains thick. In May, the daily low temperatures have settled in the 60s and even 50s, creating a difference of 25 to 30 degrees, even larger during this current heat wave. The air also pleasantly dry.

Could you have a heat wave in the winter?

Beachgoers said both yes and no. Heat isn’t a word typically associated with the coldest time of year, but there’s no denying that it still arrives in surprising fashion.

“We can have heat waves in winter if you’re looking at it statistically,” Blumenfeld said.

Consider late December 2023, the Twin Cities hit 55 degrees on Christmas Eve, then 54 degrees on Christmas day along with relatively high humidity. That’s extreme warmth for the holiday season, heating up the debate on how to label these steamy stretches.

“Defining a heat wave really kind of depends on who’s asking,” Blumenfeld said.

The most recent extreme heat for the month of May came in 2018. That’s when much of Minnesota hit 100 degrees on Memorial Day.

Jeff Wagner

Jeff Wagner joined the WCCO-TV team in November 2016 as a general assignment reporter, and now anchors WCCO’s Saturday evening newscasts. Although he’s new to Minnesota, he’s called the Midwest home his entire life.

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Minnesota

Minnesotans faced with sticker shock over car tab renewals: “It’s just very expensive”

Published

37 minutes ago

March 24, 2026

Press Room

Minnesotans faced with sticker shock over car tab renewals: “It’s just very expensive”

March 23, 2026 / 6:55 PM CDT
/ CBS Minnesota

If you have a newer car, you may be in for some sticker shock when you renew your Minnesota license tabs. That’s because the formula for calculating fees has changed due to a 2023 bill.

If your car is less than five years old, you could even be seeing tab prices go up year over year.

Jeff Craig drives a Subaru Forester. He bought it used, but was shocked when he renewed his tabs.

“We paid the tab on it for the first time and the next year it was more expensive,” Craig said.

The new formula means the average driver paid $178 in registration taxes this year — a 20% increase. Craig thinks it unfair.

“The car depreciates, but the tax goes up? Really? Is that how that’s supposed to work? I don’t thing so,” he said.

But the 2023 bill didn’t just change the state’s overall formula for calculating license tab fees; it also changed the way it calculates the depreciation of your vehicle.

The state calculates that your new car loses 5% of its value a year, so 10% over two years. The Kelley Blue Book estimates that over two years, the average new car loses 30% of its value.

GOP state Sen. John Jasinski has a bill to roll back the changes.

“People are frustrated. It’s just very expensive,” Jasinski said. “You’re paying a lot more up in the first couple years now, and it’s very expensive on a new car.”

But the state says tabs for older cars are going down, and that many Minnesota drivers will pay less. And If you can hang onto your car for 11 years, your renewal cost is a flat $35 plus taxes and fees.

The bill to roll back the changes is moving forward in the GOP-controlled House, but it’s stalled in the state Senate.

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Minnesota

Minnesota lawmakers push to repeal César Chávez Day after allegations

Published

13 hours ago

March 23, 2026

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Minnesota lawmakers push to repeal César Chávez Day after allegations

DFL and Latine community leaders are pushing for the repeal of César Chávez Day in Minnesota after sexual abuse allegations against the late civil rights icon have surfaced.

The New York Times published a report on March 18 detailing several allegations of sexual abuse by Chávez, a farm labor activist, including the sexual abuse of two minor girls and the assault and rape of Dolores Huerta, who led the farmworkers’ movement of the 1960s and ’70s alongside Chávez.

“The farmworker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual,” Huerta, now 95, said in a statement. “Cesar’s actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farmworkers with the help of thousands of people. We must continue to engage and support our community, which needs advocacy and activism now more than ever.”

State and local leaders have quickly responded, and an effort is underway at the state Capitol to repeal the quickly approaching March 31 “César Chávez Day.”

The House passed a repeal late Monday afternoon. The Senate still have to consider it. It’s not clear whether the state would eventually designate the day with another person’s name or another farmer union-related title.

Rep. María Isa Pérez-Vega, DFL-St. Paul, how authored repeal legislation, said “it was gutting” to read the sexual abuse allegations.

“This legislation to repeal César Chávez Day out of the Minnesota Constitution marks one crucial step in a multi-faceted process. We acknowledge that this is merely the beginning. Constantly, we must advocate for numerous causes, recognizing that a movement transcends individual figures,” she said.

‘Drawing a clear line’

Emilia Gonzalez, executive director of Unidos Minnesota, said the repeal is about “drawing a clear line.”

“Repealing César Chávez Day is about drawing a clear line that no legacy, no matter how powerful, no matter how important, stands above the safety and dignity of our children and our community. We can honor farm workers, we can honor the movement, La Causa. We can honor the struggle of labor rights, but we don’t have to enshrine a single figure in a way that leaves no room for truth, complexity or accountability,” she said.

Rep. Liish Kozlowski, DFL-Duluth, said accountability starts with the repeal of César Chávez Day.

“Our community is showing the nation how to respond to sexual violence and violence in all of its forms,” they said. “We are showing what it means to listen and believe survivors when they break their silence. We believe them, we stand with them, and we hold individuals and institutions accountable.”

A street in St. Paul

Minnesota also has a street named after Chávez in St. Paul, as well as a charter school, Academia César Chávez.

St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, who was at the Capitol on Monday, didn’t provide a timeline for when the street name could be changed, but said she’s getting a group of stakeholders and residents together to discuss the issue.

Ramona Arreguín de Rosales, an activist who personally met Chávez and the co-founder of Academia César Chávez, said she has recommended that the Board of Academia César Chávez change the school’s name, but said she does not want to “diminish the good work that the movement has accomplished.”

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Minnesota

NCAA women’s tournament takeaways, Day 3: Minnesota drains buzzer-beater as LSU, Texas dominate again

Published

1 day ago

March 23, 2026

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NCAA women’s tournament takeaways, Day 3: Minnesota drains buzzer-beater as LSU, Texas dominate again

The Sweet 16 field is halfway filled as the first weekend of the NCAA tournament starts to wrap up. There weren’t a ton of surprises on Sunday for the start of the second round, but we did get our first buzzer-beater.

Minnesota reaches Sweet 16 on buzzer-beater

After a buzzer-beater was called off on Saturday, we finally got one.

Amaya Battle got her game-winner to fall on Sunday afternoon, which lifted Minnesota to what is its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2005. Battle, with less than a second left on the clock, drilled a contested jumper from the short corner to push the Gophers past Ole Miss 65-63. Naturally, that sparked a massive celebration on their home court.