A comfortable and breezy Sunday; shower chance far northern Minnesota
NWS will survey damage from Friday night, Saturday evening storms
There were some strong thunderstorms in parts of eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin Saturday evening. Several weather warnings were issued for the evening storms, and a tornado was reported Saturday evening in southern Washington County in Minnesota and in Pierce County, Wisconsin.
The National Weather Service posts preliminary info on tornados here.
These are the tornado reports from Saturday evening:
Times listed are in Universal Time, which is 5 hours ahead of Central Daylight Time; so the 0254 time stamp on the tornado report 5 miles north of Hastings. Minnesota was at 9:54 p.m. Saturday. The tornado listed at 0307 was at 10:07 p.m. Saturday, and located 5 miles north-northeast of Prescott, Wisconsin.
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Doppler radar sometimes allows meteorologists to see the debris that’s lifted into the air by a tornado. That was the case last night, and that additional info allowed the NWS to issue stronger wording in the tornado warnings that went out.
The NWS announced that a survey team will go out today and assess the damage from just east of Cottage Grove, Minnesota to near River Falls, Wisconsin. The survey team will also visit Chisago county to look at storm damage from Friday night.
Delightful Sunday weather
The steamy air is gone! Highs will be in the low to mid 80s across much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin Sunday afternoon. There’ll be some 70s in far northern Minnesota. Dew points will be in the comfortable 50s in many areas, with some lower 60s lingering in western Wisconsin and far southeastern Minnesota.
It’ll be a breezy day, and rain-free in most areas. A few scattered showers and an isolated thunderstorm will be possible Sunday afternoon and evening in far northern Minnesota and the far northwestern corner of Wisconsin.
Monday rain chance to the west
Far western Minnesota could see scattered showers and thunderstorms late Monday afternoon and Monday evening, then the rain spreads into eastern Minnesota later Monday night.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential rain pattern Monday afternoon through Monday 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.
Temperature trends
Monday highs will be in the 70s north, with lower 80s in central and southern Minnesota:
Monday afternoon dew points will be in the 50s in northern and central Minnesota, with 60s to the south:
Back to high temperatures, Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the lower 80s Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by mid 80s Thursday and around 90 on Friday. We have a shot at lower 90s next Saturday.
We may see warm weather from next Sunday right through the end of July and into the first day of August. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows above-normal temperatures in Minnesota and western Wisconsin for July 26 through August 1:
We’ll see if that pans out.
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.