Heading back to work today? The commute might remind you of the olden days of 2019.

Driving the news: Traffic in the Twin Cities is back to within 10-15% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

• Afternoon traffic volumes are higher than mornings.

Flashback: Freeway traffic levels plummeted to 52% below normal in the Twin Cities metro last spring, when the pandemic and government restrictions forced people to stay in their homes.

• It dipped again in the winter but rebounded this spring as Minnesotans have gotten vaccinated.

What's ahead: Expect traffic to keep increasing as the summer carries on.

• As we reported two weeks ago, companies have chosen three common dates to bring remote office workers back: June 1 (today), July 6 and Sept. 7 — the Tuesdays after holiday weekends.
• So far about 23% of downtown Minneapolis office workers and about 20% of St. Paul workers are back, according to the Minneapolis Downtown Council and Saint Paul Downtown Alliance.

What to watch: Traffic should be heavier Tuesdays through Thursdays, the days companies using hybrid work models plan to have most of their employees on-site, according to a Minneapolis Downtown Council survey.

• 80% of downtown Minneapolis employers expect to bring their workers back 3-5 days a week and 70% of them expect to have at least half of their employees back this fall, according to the council.

💬 Nick's thought bubble: The empty roads weren't going to last forever, but at least we knocked out a year of construction backups on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis and Highway 5 near the airport.

Today is the meteorological start to summer. We hate to be a buzzkill, but the summer months don't always bring shorts and T-shirt weather here in the Bold North.

• 🥶 So how cold can it get?

Between the lines: If historical data from the National Weather Service is any indication, the June through August mercury shouldn't dip below freezing. But we've come awfully close!

• And if it does this year? We'll personally blame those of you who took the ice scraper out of your trunk. Don't jinx it for the rest of us!

The priciest home on the market in the Twin Cities sits on a private Lake Minnetonka island.

• The asking price is $15 million.

The intrigue: The five-bedroom, nine-bathroom Greenwood home is owned by Kam Talebi, the CEO of Kaskaid Hospitality, which operates Crave restaurants Brit's Pub, Union and BLVD.

• The 14,000-square-foot house has one of Minnesota's largest residential glass enclosed atriums, an elevator, a 12-person theater and a full gym.
• Currently assessed at $5.1 million, property taxes alone are nearly $69,000 annually.
• It went on the market May 21 and is listed by Prudden & Co. The Zillow listing is here.

What to watch: If Talebi gets his asking price, it would be the most expensive home sale in at least the last five years, according to annual research by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

• But with these insanely expensive homes, getting asking price is no easy feat.
• A Deephaven home on the market for $14 million in 2019 and sold last year for $8.2 million. That was nowhere near the asking price, but still the priciest home sale of 2020.

"When you have members of the Legislature reaching out to me trying to find out if I know something, that's when you know something is wrong."

What to watch: A special session is tentatively planned for mid-June.

😷 Experts are optimistic that COVID is on the run in Minnesota, with cases falling to levels not seen since last summer. (Star Tribune)

❄️A 12-pound chunk of ice fell straight through a man's home in western Wisconsin and nearly hit him. (KARE 11)

🏗 Alan Arthur is stepping down as CEO of Aeon after 33 years leading the Minneapolis-based nonprofit developer of affordable housing. (Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal)

🏘 Tenants are waging a fight with a New York investment firm that owns a large number of North Minneapolis rental houses. (Star Tribune)

There are so many delicious burgers in the Twin Cities, but Nick has always kept just two of them in the elite category: The Nook burger and the Parlour burger.

• But he's ready to admit a third into the upper echelon: The Cuban burger at Guava's Cuban Cafe, 5607 Chicago Ave., Minneapolis.

The details: It's two patties cooked with chorizo butter, cheese, pickles, and shoestring potatoes for $14.

🍔 Nick's second tier of great burgers: Blue Door Pub in St. Paul and Minneapolis; Matt's Bar and 5-8, both in Minneapolis; B-52 in Inver Grove Heights; Saint Dinette in St. Paul; and Red Cow (multiple locations).