If you hold the Minnesota State Fair, Minnesotans will come — no matter the weather.

If it rains, fairgoers will show up with umbrellas and ponchos — or they’ll buy them from vendors. If it’s sunny and hot, some people will purchase parasols and others will wear sunblock. Even if attendees are caught unprepared, they will mostly keep smiling as they huddle in buildings on the Fairgrounds or under the awnings to wait out the rain. Some beat the heat by planning their visits for later in the day, when they can attend shows at the Grandstand and watch the nightly fireworks.

Still, it’s always good to plan ahead. So, with the imminent start of the 2024 Minnesota State Fair, we asked: What’s the 12-day forecast?

Opening day

Let’s start with Thursday.

“For opening day, we should be OK,” says Ryan Dunleavy, a meteorologist with the Twin Cities office of the National Weather Service.

That’s true especially for early risers (gates open at 7 a.m.), who will likely enjoy the day’s pleasant start, with temperatures eventually climbing to between 75 and 80 degrees.

Later on, there’s potential for showers and thunderstorms.

“But it looks like that should not pester anybody until after the evening activities are wrapped up,” Dunleavy predicted on Tuesday.

Opening weekend

As for the first weekend of the Fair — a popular time to attend — prepare for a stickier and hotter experience.

“The first weekend could be warmer and muggier than opening day,” Dunleavy said.

After a possible rainy start on Friday, the weather service expects clouds to decrease and temperatures to climb into the 80s.

Temperatures could climb into the low 90s by Sunday, with dew points climbing as well.

“Why not add a little tropical flavor to it?” Dunleavy said with a laugh.

If you need to cool off, head to the info booths to check the Fairgrounds map for the closest water and misting locations, the State Fair advises. First aid is also provided by Regions Hospital Emergency Medical Services.

Next week

As for next week, it gets a bit trickier to pin down the forecast this early.

Here’s what we can tell you:

Monday marks the first of two Seniors Days at the Fair — featuring $13 admission for ages 65 and up, among other deals — but Dunleavy says the weather service will need to watch a brewing system to see if it stays put in northwestern Minnesota as currently predicted.

Still, the extended forecast looks pretty good so far.

“Things could change a lot,” Dunleavy said, “but at least for the next eight to 14 days, the Climate Prediction Center is predicting near normal temperatures, right around the 80 to 85 range.”

As for precipitation? That could always happen, but …

“There’s not a big washout in the foreseeable forecast,” Dunleavy said on Tuesday.

Air quality

You might have noticed our hazy skies in the metro — this is due to light wildfire smoke from Canada over most of the state, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency reported on Tuesday.

While this translated to moderate air quality (yellow category) on Tuesday, improvements are incoming — at least for the start of the Great Minnesota Get-Together.

“High pressure will shift east of the area for Wednesday/Thursday, and increased southerly winds will bring a gradual improvement to air quality,” the MPCA predicts.

People with health concerns should follow the MPCA’s daily forecasting at pca.state.mn.us/air-water-land-climate/air-quality-forecast; you can also sign up for air quality alerts.

“We only produce air quality forecasts out three days,” says David Brown of the MPCA’s Risk Evaluation & Air Modeling Unit, in an email response on Tuesday to the Pioneer Press’ query. “Currently, the forecast for Thursday, the first day of the Fair, is Green or Good. Looking at the long range weather forecast models, we’re pretty confident there won’t be any big weather systems bringing Canadian air and smoke into the state for at least a week from today. That’s the best information we can provide right now.”

Weather history

We can confidently report that no snow accumulation is expected at the 2024 Fair.

“This State Fair will be snow-free, that’s my bold projection,” says Pete Boulay, a climatologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ state climatology office, with a laugh.

In fact, Boulay says, there has never been a Minnesota State Fair with any white stuff — beyond the dusting of powdered sugar on those elephant ears, of course.

The public can learn all about weather throughout the State Fair’s history at dnr.state.mn.us/climate/journal/state_fair_weather.html.

While some might remember the extreme heat of 2013 or the 7-inch deluge of 1977, Boulay recalls a different weather fact from State Fair season.

“What stands out for me is a really cold day,” he says. “And the last time we had a cold day at the Fair was in 2021, when we had a high of 64 on Sept. 3.”

Of course, there’s someone who always experiences a cold day at the Fair: Princess Kay of the Milky Way, when she sits in a cooler as an artist sculpts her likeness in butter!

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The walkthrough had just ended on Tuesday afternoon at TCO Performance Center and defensive coordinator Brian Flores was slowly making his way to the podium.

As soon as the Vikings defensive coordinator walked off the practice field, safety Josh Metellus and defensive tackle Harrison Phillips were there waiting for Flores. The trio then proceeded to walk to the podium together with Metellus and Phillips standing behind Flores in support.

It was a clear statement that the Vikings have his back — both literally and figuratively — roughly 24 hours after his character was called into question by Dolphins star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

“It meant a lot,” Flores said. “I’ve had a lot of support from a lot of people in this building and other buildings, as well. I was flooded with text messages yesterday, so that’s nice. At the same time, this is a team sport, and I don’t ever want it to be about anything that’s specific to me.”

That was unavoidable for Flores on Monday morning after a clip from “The Dan LeBatard Show” started to make the rounds on social media. In the interview, Tagovailoa spoke candidly about his former head coach, vilifying Flores for the way he treated him during their time together in Miami.

The most inflammatory remark came when Tagovailoa called Flores a “terrible person” while recounting his experience working with him on a daily basis.

Asked how he felt about that description, Flores responded, “Look, I’m human, so that hit me in a way that I wouldn’t say was positive for me.”

In the same breath, Flores noted that he’s treating this as a learning experience.

“I’ve got to use that and say, ‘Hey. How can I grow from that? How can I be better?’ ” Flores said. “That’s really where I’m at from that standpoint.”

Although he didn’t go into detail about his time with Tagovailoa, Flores seemed to acknowledge that his coaching style might have rubbed some players the wrong way.

“I’ve done a lot of reflecting on the situation and the communication,” Flores said. “I think there’s things that I could do better, for sure, and I’ve grown in that way, and I’ve tried to apply the things that I could do better.”

After confronting the situation from his past for the better of 10 minutes, Flores tried his best to bring the focus back to his present.

“I’m at a point now where I’m really trying to move forward and I’m really trying to focus on the guys here,” he said. “I’m always trying to learn and grow and evolve — really in all areas of my life. This is no different. I think at some point we’ve got to turn the page and I’m going to do that now.”

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The WNBA didn’t waste anytime returning to the hardwood after the Olympics, and the quick turnaround following the Paris Games is something players may look to change in the next collective bargaining agreement.

Teams started playing games four days after the Paris Games ended, including Breanna Stewart and the New York Liberty, who opened up in Los Angeles — a nine-hour time difference after her time in France.

“I think that even in a non-Olympic year, you think about (the) All-Star (Game), it’s like, everybody needs some time after All-Star break or it’s not a break,” she told The Associated Press. “So, trying to kind of push that into the CBA, I think would be really important. Especially following the Olympics, because we’ve never had an Olympics in a 40-game season, except this season.”

Players or the league are able to opt out of the current CBA at the end of this season.

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was head coach for the gold medal-winning U.S. team, which featured Lynx forward Napheesa Collier. Alanna Smith played for Australia, and Bridget Carleton for Canada. Minnesota resumed its season two days after Closing Ceremonies and have their first two games heading into Wednesday night’s 8:30 p.m. tipoff at Las Vegas.

The quick turnaround didn’t seem to hurt New York, either. The Liberty had four players and its head coach competing in the Paris Games. The Liberty swept a pair of games from Los Angeles and Las Vegas to remain solidly atop the standings and clinch a playoff spot.

Stewart understands the league, which has all this momentum behind it, doesn’t want to go longer without having games after taking the break.

“From the W’s perspective, I’m sure they’re like, well, we don’t want to be not showing games for an entire month or a month plus. But at the same time, understanding the players’ perspective I think is really important,” she said. “It’s wild, from Paris to the West Coast, so it’s just like, not an ideal situation.”

The Liberty forward said “unfortunately” players are put in situations like these a lot.

“It’s like, onto the next, onto the next, onto the next, where we kind of even really celebrate what we did, of winning a gold medal, as much as you would want to.”

The Aces split their first two games, and A’ja Wilson would have loved a few more days to recover after helping the U.S. win it’s eighth consecutive gold medal. Las Vegas was one of the lucky teams that didn’t start play until Saturday.

“I definitely needed some time to decompress. Playing USAB (is) a whole other thought and mind process that you might not necessarily have to exert that much energy when you play with your respective team,” Wilson said. “So, definitely needed just a couple of days just to kind of decompress, whether that’s just get back into the flow of things, or just get my feet underneath me, because that was a long time away with a lot of just back and forth.”

Wilson said she’d be in favor of the players discussing getting more time off.

“I think if it is a chance for us to go to the table and say, ‘Hey, we should get more rest time,’ even if it’s … just a couple of days. It’s crazy to see players play fresh off of a plane in a sense. So yeah, I don’t mind asking for that.”

Phoenix, Chicago and Los Angeles all played three games in a four-day span to tipoff the second half of their seasons.

Fortunately from the Olympics standpoint, the next one is in Los Angeles, so travel will be less of an issue for USAB players.

Lebawit Lily Girma | Bloomberg News (TNS)

The ski resorts near Gunnison and Crested Butte, Colorado, are so close to Aspen, you’d think the area wouldn’t need its own airport. Their glitzier neighbor is just 48 miles north as the crow flies, though that’s roughly 150 miles by road.

But people flocking to Crested Butte’s laid-back town, extreme ski slopes and epic mountain biking have a new reason to bypass farther-away Aspen: the destination’s gleaming new airport, which debuted in January 2023.

Not only is the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport terminal easy to get across quickly, at just 40,000 square feet, it’s also heated and cooled with geothermal energy and uses triple glazed windows to keep travelers warm in a town known to be one of the coldest places in the US.

And Crested Butte isn’t the only small town airport receiving an upgrade.

All across the U.S., at least a dozen small and medium-size facilities are being renovated and, in some cases, entirely rebuilt — typically on budgets that stretch eight and nine figures. That contradicts a long-held belief among aviation industry pros that these regional facilities were destined to gather dust and die out.

Indeed during the pandemic, smaller U.S. airports fell out of favor. With business travel reduced to virtually nothing, airlines cut service to focus on more profitable leisure routes between large hubs. Planned facility improvements were also put on hold. Even as those issues faded, severe pilot shortages forced major airlines to cut back on more routes. In the process, they realized that the profit margins on smaller flight loads simply aren’t what they were a decade ago. It was a confluence of crises that seemed to doom small airports for good.

But some of these factors have since evolved. For one, second-tier cities are experiencing continued population booms, a trend that started with pandemic-era urban flight in 2020 and persists as remote workers look for more affordable places to live. A large number of unsold seats on those classic vacation flights have also proven to airlines that it’s time to reconsider their route maps, explains Brian Sumers, aviation expert and founder of the Airline Observer newsletter. Not to be overlooked is the high customer satisfaction associated with these smaller facilities, which are blissfully devoid of stress-inducing crowds and endless concourses that take forever to crisscross.

Of course money has a lot to do with it, too. The Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has funneled at least $9 billion toward airport improvement around the country since 2022, which adds to public and private funding on a more local level that has helped revive a number of additional facilities. Though budgets are always subject to change, Knoxville and Memphis in Tennessee have seen a combined $830 million in airport investment; Des Moines, Iowa, has budgeted $445 million to transform its facility; and Pittsburgh has a full $1.5 billion to work with.

In other words, the renaissance of small American airports is officially in full swing. Here are a few examples of upcoming overhauls we’re excited about — consider them emblematic of what may soon come to a small town near you.

The challenge of expanding a small airport is keeping its more intimate vibe intact, says Brent Mather, the Denver-based design principal for Gensler, a leading architecture firm spearheading a number of these projects. Preserving the ability to arrive 30 minutes before your flight and still make it through security and get on a plane, he says, “means a lot, especially to people that live there. It’s a huge selling point.”

For example, at the newly redone Eagle County Regional Airport near Vail, Colorado, it takes less than five minutes to traverse the entirety of the 65,000-square-foot concourse, which opened in late 2020. By comparison, it’s 1.45 miles—roughly a 30 minute-walk—to get from the airport terminal train to the gates at Denver International.

That philosophy is driving the design of a $2 billion, 1 million-square-foot terminal at John Glenn Columbus International Airport, scheduled to open in 2029, with a market-like dining hall right at the center of its single concourse. The idea, says Gensler aviation lead Tim Hudson, is to create a seamless passenger experience where you can eat, drink and shop in a hyper-accessible spot, from which passengers can see at least two-thirds of the airport’s gates and plenty of flight monitors. “It’s one big concourse, one central security checkpoint, and one concessions program — where passengers can access the entire building.”

The new terminal, which will fully replace the existing one, is being co-designed by Gensler and Columbus-based firm Moody Nolan to have 36 gates — seven more than the current airport — plus a 5,000 car parking garage. Its groundbreaking is set for early 2025.

“Our current terminal opened in 1958 and was built for a different time,” says Joseph Nardone, president and chief executive officer of the Columbus Regional Airport Authority. “With a more efficient, easier to navigate, and sustainable design, we will be ready to meet and exceed travelers’ expectations and support our growing community for years to come.”

The number of travelers to this central Ohio city will rise from 8.7 million passengers in 2023 to an estimated 13 million in 2033 — a spike fueled by Columbus’ emergence as a Midwest tech and business hub.

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In Nevada, Reno-Tahoe International Airport is readying for two new concourses that will begin construction in 2025 and wrap in 2030. An influx of new residents, fueled by a reputation for family-friendliness and a growing number of data centers, is expected to drive Reno-Tahoe’s annual passenger loads from 2.3 million passengers today to 3.7 million by 2046. As the airport expands, two priorities will be increasing the gate sizes to accommodate larger planes and adding more food and beverage options.

Sense of place is another consideration. Mather is keenly aware that regional airports are typically more expensive to fly into and out of than their larger, international counterparts, and with that premium comes an expectation of better service and inspired design.

“We want people arriving to go, ‘Wow! OK, I am in Reno, this is going to be a really good experience,’ whether it’s for business or for leisure,” he explains.

In Columbus, the central concession will have floor-to-ceiling views of the runways and resemble the town’s historic North Market — a farm stand and restaurant complex that’s popular with visitors. That’s expected to drive spending, too: In San Francisco International Airport’s Terminal 2, a similar overhaul that turned standard airport restaurants into a farmer’s market-inspired dining hall led to a 23% increase in revenue, says Hudson.

At Gunnison-Crested Butte, the main restaurant and lounge have brightly painted stripes on a pitched ceiling that nod to Crested Butte’s colorful Victorian facades downtown. Wraparound windows throughout frame a stunning mountain landscape.

The future Reno airport, too, will have a concourse lined end-to-end with panoramic views of the area’s distant peaks. Mather says he was thinking about the feeling of leaving a ski resort in Tahoe and catching a flight home from Reno when he designed those walls of windows. “I want it to feel like it’s an extension of someone’s vacation,” he says.

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