90s for several days; comfortable dew points on Sunday
A look at August temps
The high temp at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 93 degrees Saturday afternoon. That’s 10 degrees warmer than our average July 24 high in the Twin Cities. At least the comfortable dew points arrived by mid-afternoon. The 7 a.m. dew point at MSP airport was a sticky 69 degrees. At 5 p.m., the dew point was 47 degrees. There was roughly half as much water in our Twin Cities air at 5 p.m. Saturday compared to 7 a.m. Saturday.
Saturday was our 18th day this year with an official Twin Cities high of 90 degrees or warmer. We’ll add to our 2021 total over the next few days. We average 13 days per year of 90 or warmer in the Twin Cities.
Temperature trends
Sunday highs will reach the 90s in roughly the southern half of Minnesota, with 80s to the north:
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
Dew points will be in the comfortable 40s and 50s:
Back to forecast highs, Twin Cities metro area high temps are projected to reach the lower 90s on Monday, followed by mid 90s Tuesday and upper 90s Wednesday. Highs retreat to the upper 80s for Thursday and Friday. Our dew points will creep upward on Monday and Tuesday, and we could see dew points in the steamy 70s on Wednesday.
A warm August?
An early look at August, from the NWS Climate Prediction Center, shows a tendency for above-normal temps in Minnesota and Wisconsin:
The August temperature outlook will be updated by the NWS on July 31.
Rain chances?
Sunday looks dry in most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin. A few scattered showers and an isolated thunderstorm could develop in west-central and southwestern Minnesota Sunday evening. The rain chance will spread eastward overnight Sunday night and into Monday morning.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s High-Resolution Rapid-Refresh (HRRR) forecast model shows the potential rain pattern from Sunday evening through Monday morning:
You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the Minnesota Public Radio network, and you can see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.
We could see a stray shower or t-storm late Tuesday, with a better chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms Wednesday evening and overnight Wednesday night. Let’s hope we get some rain; many areas have quite a summer rainfall deficit.
How dry is it?
Just two-hundredths of an inch of rain was reported early Saturday morning at MSP airport. That puts our official Twin Cities rain total at 2.46 inches below normal for July and almost 5 inches below normal since June 1:
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.