Hazy Tuesday with a few storms by the afternoon

A disturbance moving across Minnesota Tuesday will bring a couple showers and storms, while also drawing more smoke back into the Arrowhead.

Tuesday’s forecast

The state is starting Tuesday with morning lows that are seasonable for mid-July, in the 50s and 60s. Afternoon highs ranging from the lower 80s north to the upper 80s south will be a couple degrees above average. 

There is a trough of lower pressure moving across the state that has already passed through northwestern Minnesota as of 7 a.m., switching winds from a southerly flow ahead of the trough to northerly behind it. While much of Minnesota sees some haze Tuesday from fires in the western U.S. and Canada, the Arrowhead especially can expect more of the haze and possibly some air quality issues by the afternoon as the winds shift and draw in more smoke from the Ontario fires.

The disturbance does not have much moisture with it and is only producing a couple very sparse showers in the Arrowhead as of Tuesday morning.  However, as the trough travels south and during afternoon heating, a few more thunderstorms are likely to develop and could become strong for isolated storms with damaging wind or hail.  

For the Twin Cities, the most likely timing of any storms would be late afternoon or early evening. 

Another much more potent storm targets Minnesota Wednesday, with areas of heavy rain and a much more elevated severe weather risk.

That extended forecast will be updated around 9 a.m. 

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:49 a.m. Monday through Friday morning.