Hello and happy Thursday everyone. Not sure if you’re a football fan or not, but tonight’s the night the regular NFL season begins. Two titans; The Minnesota Vikings lead by the “Gun Slinger” Bret Favre and the New Orleans Saints lead by Drew “Cool Brees” Brees. Weatherwise, there won’t be much to talk about since the game will be played inside the Superdome, but it’ll be electric inside and out regardless the weather. Good luck to both teams!

Just Missed

Take a look at this nasty thing. A large eruption on the Earth hurled a bright CME or Coronal Mass Ejection into space.

Take a look at the awesome video here:

If this CME would have been directed at Earth, there would have been a significant geomagnetic storm and lots of auroras (northern lights).

Photo Courtesy: www.spaceweather.com

A National Look

Heavy rain continues through parts of the Mid-Mississippi Valley from the remnants of Tropical Storm HERMINE and strong/severe storms are possible in the western Dakotas later today.

Dakotas Severe Threat

The Storm Prediction Center has issued a SLIGHT RISK of severe weather today for the western portions of North and South Dakota for the risk of hail, high winds and even a tornado or two:

Tropical Update

Storms continue to develop in the Atlantic Basin. IGOR developed into a Tropical Storm yesterday and continues to churn western at Tropical Storm strength. The latest forecast has IGOR becoming a hurricane as early as Sunday. IGOR may even grow into Category 2 strength by early next week.

This is the latest long range forecast given by the GFS model – it has IGOR looking pretty solid as it enters the central Atlantic Ocean, west of the Caribbean Islands:

Well, that’s all I’ve got for today… I better go get ready for the big ball game tonight. I’m sure there are better things I could be doing with my time, but hey… I enjoy a good game of pig skin every once in a while, especially when my team is playing – GO VIKES!!

Enjoy the rest of your Thursday.

Meteorologist Todd Nelson – WeatherNation LLC