Weekend forecast: Comfortable temps, humidity; storm chance up north Saturday
Thunder chance east before sunrise on Saturday
I’ll get to your Saturday and Sunday forecasts in a moment. I first want to mention the possibility of severe weather in parts of Minnesota Thursday evening and Thursday night. Severe weather is also possible in parts of Minnesota and western Wisconsin Friday and Friday night.
The Storm Prediction Center of the National Weather Service shows an enhanced risk of severe weather Thursday and Thursday night for much of northwestern and north-central Minnesota.
Enhanced risk means that numerous severe thunderstorms are possible. The severe weather threat would be mainly from very late Thursday afternoon into Thursday evening and the overnight hours.
The Grand Forks, N.D., office of the NWS has these details on the Thursday/Thursday night severe weather risk in northern Minnesota and parts of central Minnesota:
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Scattered severe storms are possible in the yellow-shaded area in central Minnesota Thursday evening. Any thunderstorm activity in the Twin Cities metro area is expected to hold off until after midnight, but check forecast updates.
There is the potential for severe weather in Minnesota and parts of western Wisconsin Friday and Friday night. Here’s the Twin Cities NWS depiction of the severe weather outlook for that period:
The red-hatched area is where the large hail risk would be highest Friday and Friday night.
Forecast models show that the highest severe weather risk in the Twin Cities metro area would tend to be Friday evening into the overnight hours of Friday night, but an isolated severe storm could arrive in the metro area as early as late Friday afternoon.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the NWS Storm Prediction Center upgrade parts of Minnesota to an enhanced severe weather risk for Friday and Friday night at some point.
You can hear updated weather information on the MPR network, and you’ll see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.
The weekend
After the storms overnight Friday night, the daylight hours of Saturday and Sunday look rain-free in most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin. One forecast model hints at an isolated shower or thunderstorm in northern Minnesota late Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening.
Saturday highs will be mainly in the 70s, with some lower 80s in the far south:
The Twin Cities forecast high of 80 on Saturday is very close to our average Aug. 15 high of 81 degrees.
Saturday afternoon dew points will be mainly in the 50s, with some lower 60s in the metro area and southeastern Minnesota into western Wisconsin:
Sunday highs will be similar to Saturday’s highs, mainly 70s, with some lower 80s in the far south:
Saturday afternoon dew points will be in the relatively comfortable 50s:
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.