"What not mowing in May could mean for your lawn"
"No Mow May has captured the public's attention in the last few years. The idea of not mowing a lawn during the month of May in order to promote flowers for early season pollinators was first promoted by a research paper that has since been retracted. But there is still quite a bit of public interest in the initiative. Several cities in Minnesota have scaled back mowing ordinances for the month of May and have even created lawn signs for promoting the movement. And people have reached out to me to see if I would support a mandate outlawing mowing in May."

"2023 Minnesota Fishing Opener"
"Across Minnesota, 2023's ice-out dates ranged about a week to ten days behind the median in general. Here's median dates calculated since 1950. The 2023 Minnesota Governor's Fishing Opener will be in the Greater Mankato Area. The ice out for lakes in the Mankato area for 2023 ranged from April 10-14. Lake ice out was making a steady progress northward during the first week of May. Ice-choked lakes have dogged fishing openers of the past, including as recently as 2013. The 1950 opener was one of the worst known, with iced-over lakes extending to Mille Lacs, Osakis, and the Brainerd Lakes area. That year produced many of the late ice-out records for lakes with long records. Other years with ice on northern lakes include: 1966, 1979, 1996, 2008, and 2009. Minnesota's Fishing Opener weather can be variable in every sense of the word. We have seen hot, cold, wet, dry, stormy and even snowy. With such a large state and so many lakes, we have had years that were seemingly perfect in one area, only to be blustery and miserable in another."

MN Fishing Opener Forecast
Here's the weather outlook for Saturday's MN Fishing Opener across the northern half of the state. Note that it can still be very chilly at this time of the year and there have been a few years in the past that have had snow falling across the state. This year, we won't have any snow to worry about, but there will be areas of showers and perhaps a few thunderstorms. Sunday could be a little warmer, but it will depend on how much sunshine we can manage. Latest model trends are trying to hold the clouds and showers in place through the day Sunday now too. Stay tuned...


Severe Threat on Thursday
We're keeping an eye on the severe threat this Thursday. According to NOAA's SPC, there is a SLIGHT Risk across the far southwestern part of the state, which is a level 2 out of 5 on the severe scale. The Marginal Risk in dark green is a level 1 out of 5 on the severe scale, which means the threat of severe weather will be more isolated.

Extended Weather Outlook
Isolated showers and storms will become a little more widespread as we head through the end of the week and the weekend ahead. Localized heavy rainfall will be possible in some areas picking up more than 1" tallies.

Precipitation Outlook
Here's the total rainfall potential through next weekend, which shows the potential of up to 1" or more of rainfall across the state, including the Twin Cities. Some spots in western Minnesota could get close to 1.50".