Flash flood watch through tomorrow
Would the last one out please turn off the faucet?
Here we go again. Another stalled frontal zone triggers waves of showers and thunderstorms today through tomorrow night across much of Minnesota. Another 2" to 5"+ rainfall is on the way by Wednesday night in most back yards and farm fields.
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Flash flood watches include the Twin Cities and most of southern Minnesota.
Latest Twin Cities radar loop
FLOOD WATCH
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
327 AM CDT TUE SEP 6 2016
...THUNDERSTORMS WITH HEAVY RAIN MAY LEAD TO FLOODING NOW THROUGH
WEDNESDAY NIGHT...
PERIODS OF MODERATE TO HEAVY RAIN ARE EXPECTED TODAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT OVER MUCH OF SOUTHERN AND EASTERN MINNESOTA INTO WESTERN WISCONSIN. MOST LOCATIONS WILL RECEIVE 2 TO 3 INCHES OF RAIN BUT LOCALIZED AMOUNTS IN EXCESS OF 5 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE. THIS RAINFALL COULD LEAD TO FLOODING IN LOW LYING AREAS...URBAN AREAS...AND ALONG RIVERS.
A troubled front
The stationary front lingers over southern Minnesota through Wednesday. The front is the dividing line between summer and fall air masses, with tropical dew points in the 70s south of the front. The convergence zone near the front will be the focal point for waves of showers and T-Storms. It finally kicks out to the east Thursday.
Multi-inch rainfall
Our Minnesota summer monsoon is running into September this year. It's always difficult to pinpoint the heaviest rain zone, but southern Minnesota south of the metro seems ripe for 2" to 5" totals by Wednesday night. 5" to 6" over towns like Rochester and Winona? It could happen.
Here's NOAA's NAM 4 km resolution rainfall output.
Drying out this weekend?
This may be the best forecast news I've seen in a while for waterlogged Minnesota. A significant change in the overall weather pattern appears headed for Minnesota starting this weekend and lasting through at least next week. Drier northwest flow should bring as much as a week of dry, sunny weather starting this weekend and lasting through much of next week.
A family of Canadian cool fronts may brings the season's first overnight lows in the 30s up north and 40s in the metro next week, with below average temps overall.
Don't look now, but early fall may be just around the corner on the weather maps.