Mild temps and gusty winds Sunday afternoon; rain chances increase

Fire weather update for Minnesota

Temps will be mild this afternoon across much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Our average Twin Cities high temp is 59 degrees this time of year. Metro area highs will reach the low to mid 60s this afternoon. Sunday highs reach the 60s in roughly the southern half of Minnesota plus portions of western Wisconsin. It’ll be much colder to the northwest, with highs in the 40s in northwestern Minnesota and parts of north-central Minnesota.

Wind gusts of 25 mph are possible in the Twin Cities Sunday afternoon and early Sunday evening, with gusts over 30 mph in northwestern and west-central Minnesota.

Low relative-humidity levels will combine with the gusty winds to elevate the danger of wildfire spread Sunday afternoon:

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Fire weather discussion for Sunday
National Weather Service

Outdoor burning is not recommended this afternoon or this evening.

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Shower chances

Northwestern Minnesota has seen areas of showers this morning. The showers are expected to spread to the east and southeast Sunday afternoon and evening. Parts of northern Minnesota could see some flakes mixed with the rain showers at times. The shower chance in the Twin Cities metro area arrives mid-to-late Sunday afternoon and lingers into Sunday evening.

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

Chilly breezes Monday

Monday highs will be in the 40s in many areas, with 30s in northern Minnesota:

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Monday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Monday wind gusts of 20-26 mph are expected, with a few higher gusts in southwestern Minnesota:

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Monday 1 p.m. forecast wind gusts
National Weather Service

Plotted gusts are in knots, with 19 knots equal to almost 22 mph.

Most areas will see a lot of cloud cover on Monday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential cloud cover Monday and Monday evening:

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Simulated cloud cover Monday and Monday evening
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

Northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin may even see a few flakes.

Temperature trends

Chilly temps linger into Wednesday. Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to be in the mid 40s Tuesday and upper 40s Wednesday. Our highs rebound to around 60 degrees for Thursday and Friday.  

April 18 weather extremes

Twin Cities weather records show that our record high for April 18 is 89 degrees, set in 1985.  Our coldest Twin Cities high temp on this date was 31 degrees, in 1953. Our record April 18 low temp of 21 degrees was also set in 1953. We all know that it can still snow beyond mid-April….MSP airport recorded 6.4 inches of snow on this date in 2013.

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on MPR News at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:39 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.