Mark Seeley predicts cooler than normal temperatures going into next week

Significant rains for some

Small scale, but intense thunderstorms brought some heavy rainfall to parts of Minnesota early on Tuesday. International Falls reported 1.07 inches, their heaviest rainfall since Aug. 15. Many others reported quarter-inch amounts or greater. Some of the largest amounts of rainfall were:


Champlin 2.11"
Andover 1.64"
Royalton 1.27"
Maple Grove 1.69"
Grand Marais 1.31"
Waskish 1.16"
Little Falls 1.25"

The residual surface water vapor from the recent rainfall also contributed to dense fog advisories released by the National Weather Service this week. Then over Wednesday night and Thursday additional significant rains fell in southeastern Minnesota where Lanesboro and Harmony reported 2.15 inches, Spring Valley 1.77 inches, Winona 1.70 inches, Zumbro Falls 1.67 inches and Chatfield 1.30 inches. Elsewhere in eastern counties snow and snow flurries were widely reported on Thursday, but not in significant amounts.

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The NOAA National Hurricane Center was busy with forecasts and advisories on Hurricane Sandy and Tropical Storm Tony this week. After passing over Cuba and the Bahamas Hurricane Sandy is expected to bring rainfall and strong winds to portions of eastern FL, GA, SC, NC into the weekend, then NY and NJ by Tuesday. TS Tony is expected to remain east of Bermuda and and dissipate over the weekend. Sandy and Tony are the 18th and 19th named Tropical Storms of the North Atlantic Hurricane Season this year.

In the Western Pacific Ocean Tropical Storm Son-Tinh was bringing heavy rains and winds as high as 85-90 mph to parts of the Philippines. It was expected to head towards the north coast of Vietnam this weekend. Tropical Storm Murjan in the northern Indian Ocean off the horn of Africa was expected to bring heavy rain to the Somalia coast.

Twin Cities Almanac for Oct. 26:

The average MSP high temperature for this date is 54 degrees F (plus or minus 11 degrees F standard deviation), while the average low is 36 degrees F (plus or minus 9 degrees F standard deviation).

Outlook:

Cool and cloudy weekend coming up. Slight chance of precipitation in the south late Saturday and into Sunday. A bit of a warming trend starting on Tuesday, but temperatures will likely remain cooler than normal most of next week, with little chance for precipitation.