Warm and humid on Sunday; best thunderstorm chances stay north

Duluth dry steak continues

We’ll talk about Sunday in a moment, but let’s first take a quick look at Saturday evening.

Areas of thunderstorms will continue to develop Saturday evening in northern Minnesota and parts of west-central Minnesota and continue into the overnight hours of Saturday night. The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center has three Minnesota counties (Clay, Wilkin and Traverse) in a severe thunderstorm watch this Saturday evening, ending at midnight Saturday night. The watch also includes southeastern North Dakota and parts of northeastern South Dakota. SPC shows the remainder of northwestern Minnesota with a slight risk area of severe weather Saturday evening and overnight Saturday night, meaning that scattered severe thunderstorms are possible. Isolated severe thunderstorms are also possible Saturday evening and overnight in north-central and northeastern Minnesota. Updates on the weather in northwestern Minnesota will be posted by the Grand Forks office of the National Weather Service.

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Saturday evening update: the severe thunderstorm watch for Saturday evening has been expanded to include most of northwestern Minnesota:

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A few spotty to isolated showers and thunderstorms are possible in central and southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin Saturday evening.

You can hear updated weather information on the MPR network, and you’ll see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.

Sunday warmth

Sunday highs reach the upper 80s in most of the northern third of Minnesota, with many lower 90s elsewhere:

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Sunday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Most areas will have Sunday afternoon dew points in the sticky 60s:

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Sunday 1 p.m. forecast dew points
National Weather Service

Northern Minnesota and west-central Minnesota have the best chance of scattered showers and t-storms on Sunday, but some of those scattered showers and storms could expand across central Minnesota by late Sunday afternoon, and into southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin Sunday evening.

Warmth lingers

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach about 90 degrees on Monday, followed by upper 80s Tuesday, lower 90s Wednesday and around 90 on Thursday and Friday. We may also reach the lower 90s on Saturday.

It looks like warm weather will be with us for a while. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows a tendency for above-normal temps in Minnesota and Wisconsin from July 12 through July 18:

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Temperature outlook July 12 through July 18
NWS Climate Prediction Center

Very dry in Duluth

Duluth has not seen any rain this month, and they had only .69 of an inch of rain in June. It was the third driest June in Duluth weather records:

It was also the third driest first half of a year in Duluth weather records. Duluth precipitation (rain plus the water content of snowfall) is more than seven inches below normal so far this year:

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Duluth climate data
National Weather Service

According to U.S. Drought Monitor, drought conditions (beige-shaded) extended from west-central Minnesota into parts of northeastern Minnesota on Tuesday:

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Tuesday drought depiction
U.S. Drought Monitor/USDA/NOAA/University of Nebraska-Lincoln

The yellow-shaded areas were drier than normal, but not yet in drought.

Parts of Minnesota have seen some rain since Tuesday, but many other areas are still hoping for showers and thunderstorms.

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on MPR News at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.