WE'VE FALLEN INTO FALL...

The Fall Equinox was on Saturday night at 8:54 pm. Often the weather doesn't switch with the official "switch" of the season, but it happened this year.

According to space.com, the equinox is when the sun crosses the celestial equator, or an imaginary line that project's Earth's equator into space. At this exact moment, the Northern and Southern hemispheres will receive an equal amount of sunshine, and the length of day and night will be approximately equal around the world.

It's the season of bonfires, pumpkins, leaves changing... and it also starts to get cooler and we lose daylight. Daylight saving time ends on November 4th when we turn the clocks back. Up until then we'll lose around 2 minutes and 50 seconds of daylight per day. So of course we tend to have cooler temperatures this time of year. The first day of fall was a textbook fall day.

Plenty of sunshine, temperatures near average and low humidity in much of the Upper Midwest. Some cooler spots in North Dakota, northern Minnesota and the UP. The fall weather will persist through much of the week. Temperatures will be a bit warmer Monday ahead of a cold front.

Some scattered showers and thunderstorms will be possible Monday night through Tuesday ahead of this front.

Because drier air is in place now, there won't be very heavy rainfall like last week. Here's a look at the rainfall totals zoomed into my local area as an example:

The lower rainfall totals will be welcomed after incredibly heavy rain this summer in parts of the Upper Midwest which prompted multiple rounds of flooding. The one thing the rain has done is help the drought in the Midwest.

The biggest improvement has been in southern Iowa and much of Missouri still needs relief. There will be the chance for some more rain during the upcoming weekend and into next week with a stronger storm system and more moisture. But this week will be fall-like with cool, dry air in place.

RK