Sunnier days ahead; warm meteorological summer of 2018

Tuesday felt more like October in Minnesota. Gray skies and chilly temperatures int he 50s and 60s left some of us wondering if summer is over.

It's not.

Our steamy summer air mass just got shoved south for a while be the season's first significant cold front.

Temperatures rebound Wednesday and Thursday under sunnier skies. There's a slight chance of some passing showers Friday. The big Labor Day weekend looks pretty darn nice at this point.

Wisconsin flash floods

Southeast Minnesota and Wisconsin have been hammered by 5" to 12" rainfall in the past two days. Flash flooding is widespread. Take a look at the map of flash flood warnings stretching across Wisconsin from the Milwaukee NWS Office.

MPR's Tim Nelson adds this write-up.

The western counties of La Crosse, Vernon and Monroe have already been particularly hard hit with 5 to 11 inches of rain. In Coon Valley, a town of about 765 people just southeast of La Crosse, emergency responders helped residents evacuate Monday night and into Tuesday morning. In Vernon County, nearly 40 roads were closed and authorities there, have been inundated with 911 calls. Rescue personnel in Coon Valley have been asking for boats, ropes and volunteers to help homeowners escape the rising waters, according to the La Crosse Tribune.

Cooler and drier in early September? 

The long range maps have done a 180 on the notion of heat in the first week of September. Most now advertise northwest flow building in across Minnesota after Labor Day.

The latest 8-14 day temperature outlooks favor near or slightly below average temperatures as we move into September.

Overall meteorological summer is running about 3 degrees warmer than average across much of Minnesota.

Stay tuned.