Severe thunderstorm watch until 11 pm Sat. includes metro area, central and northeastern MN and NW Wisc.

Be sky-aware this Saturday afternoon and evening and make sure that you have a way to receive weather warnings.

The Storm Prediction Center of the National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm watch that will continue until 11 p.m. this Saturday for the Twin Cities metro area as well as central and northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin:

Here’s the NWS discussion of the severe thunderstorm watch:

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED Severe Thunderstorm Watch Number 382 NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 355 PM CDT Sat Jul 18 2020 The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Watch for portions of Central and Northeast Minnesota Northwest Wisconsin Lake Superior * Effective this Saturday afternoon and evening from 355 PM until 1100 PM CDT. * Primary threats include... Scattered large hail and isolated very large hail events to 2 inches in diameter likely Scattered damaging wind gusts to 70 mph likely A tornado or two possible SUMMARY...Thunderstorms will form this afternoon over parts of central Minnesota and spread eastward across the watch area. Activity will eventually move into parts of northern Wisconsin and western Lake Superior, posing a continued risk of large hail and damaging winds. The severe thunderstorm watch area is approximately along and 85 statute miles north and south of a line from 60 miles west northwest of Saint Cloud MN to 30 miles north northeast of Ironwood MI. For a complete depiction of the watch see the associated watch outline update (WOUS64 KWNS WOU2). PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... REMEMBER...A Severe Thunderstorm Watch means conditions are favorable for severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch area. Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for threatening weather conditions and listen for later statements and possible warnings. Severe thunderstorms can and occasionally do produce tornadoes. && AVIATION...A few severe thunderstorms with hail surface and aloft to 2 inches. Extreme turbulence and surface wind gusts to 60 knots. A few cumulonimbi with maximum tops to 500. Mean storm motion vector 27035.

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

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.