Heat wave breaks temperature record in Twin Cities, buckles pavement on I-94

Andy Rathbun in the Pioneer Press at TwinCities.com: The season's first heat wave sent temperatures soaring into record territory Monday afternoon and buckled pavement on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis. The pavement failure on westbound I-94 at Lowry Avenue blocked three lanes of traffic and created major slowdowns. The problem started a little after 1:30 p.m. and continued into the evening rush hour as repairs were made, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Pavement blowouts were reported at 21 locations on metro highways, including seven on I-94 between the Lowry Tunnel in Minneapolis and Interstate 694. The National Weather Service office in Chanhassen issued an excessive heat warning for Hennepin and Ramsey counties. The warning began at 3 p.m. Monday and extends to 7 a.m. Wednesday.

The high temperature in the Twin Cities hit a record 97 degrees at 4:43 p.m. Monday. The old record of 95 was set in both 1979 and 1987….

A cooler moment on I-94 in Minneapolis, shot by AlexiusHoratius, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license