Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Weekend forecast: Summery Saturday and Sunday; cooler on Labor Day

Strong to severe storms possible Saturday night

sunlight reflects from the surface of a lake
Sunlight reflects from the surface of Detroit Lake on May 1.
Dan Gunderson | MPR News file

If the past couple of days have been too chilly for you, you’ll probably like the weekend temps.

Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 76 degrees on Sept. 5. The metro area is expected to reach the upper 70s Saturday afternoon.

Highs will be well into the 70s in most areas on Saturday and there will be some 80s in south-central and southwestern Minnesota. Parts of far northern Minnesota will top out in the upper 60s:

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Saturday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Saturday dew points will be in the comfortable upper 40s to lower 50s:

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

Sunday highs reach the 80s in the southern half of Minnesota, with 70s north:

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Sunday forecast highs
National Weather Service

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few spots in southwestern Minnesota touch 90.

Dew points creep up into the sticky 60s in southern and central Minnesota on Sunday:

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

Labor Day high temps will be cool, with 50s in the far north and a lot of 60s elsewhere:

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Monday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Southeastern Minnesota will reach the lower 70s on Monday.

Shower and thunderstorm chances

The daylight hours of Saturday look rain-free in most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Showers and thunderstorms develop Saturday evening and overnight Saturday night. Some of those could linger in southeastern Minnesota and parts of western Wisconsin Sunday morning.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential rain pattern Saturday evening through Sunday afternoon:

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Simulated radar Saturday evening through Sunday afternoon
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

Northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin could also see a few scattered showers Sunday afternoon.

Some of the thunderstorms late Saturday evening and overnight Saturday night could be severe. The NWS Storm Prediction Center shows a slight risk (shaded yellow) of severe weather for that period in southwestern Minnesota and south-central Minnesota:

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Severe weather outlook Saturday night
National Weather Service

Slight risk means that scattered severe thunderstorms are possible. The dark-green shaded area (which includes much of the Twin Cities metro) indicates a marginal risk of severe weather Saturday night. An isolated severe thunderstorm is possible in the marginal risk area.

Computer models show that Minnesota and western Wisconsin will probably have some showers at times on Labor Day, with a thunderstorm also possible.

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.