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Good morning, Minnesota! I had a brief layover in Denver over the weekend and my was it nice to see some snow ❄️ On to the news 📢

Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune

Capt. Charlie Anderson keeps photos of the soldiers he deployed with at his desk. Among them: a portrait of the Army National Guard colonel who helped him keep his cool as he led him through hell.

Jacob C. Helgestad died of cancer in May.

Months later, the soldiers he commanded during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan stood side by side at Camp Ripley to receive the highest honor a unit can receive: the Presidential Unit Citation.

Capt. Andrea Tsuchiya, who worked on the award paperwork with Helgestad, said it was important that his soldiers got the recognition.

“He was not going to let his soldiers, the things that they had done in Afghanistan, be forgotten," she said.

Reporter Jp Lawrence spoke with the people who knew Helgestad best — they paint a portrait of a caring father and dutiful leader. You can read the full story here.

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Brian Peterson/The Minnesota Star Tribune

The night sky forecast in Minnesota doesn't look great for the peak of this year’s Taurid meteor shower early this week. Though the streaking meteors are known to be bright, not plentiful, this year’s shower might be more active than usual.

The National Weather Service forecasts clear skies for much of the state tonight before clouds and rain move in tomorrow and through the week.

Closer to the ground, look for mystical steam fog or sea smoke above Minnesota lakes this time of year, created when cold air meets warmer water temperatures. Goldenrod plants, now with fuzzy seed tops, are also beautiful in the frost.

Read all about it in today's edition of This Week in Nature.

— Pam Louwagie, Outdoors senior team leader

@kayleefabulous via Bluesky

Every once in awhile, you come across a social media post that stops you in your tracks and makes you go, "Oh my!"

This was that for me this weekend as I scrolled through Bluesky, a Twitter-like app that isn't teeming with reply-guys and ads for itself. (At least not yet.) The post sent me scurrying to Wikipedia to verify and, sure enough, the doomed S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald made its maiden voyage the day Prince Rogers Nelson was born.

Eder Campuzano, reporter

David Taintor, editor