Prompts winter weather advisories as cold air moves in Friday night

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We’re still tracking smoke plumes from dozens of Canadian wildfires upstream from Minnesota. 

So far more than 6.8 million acres have burned in 

 in 2021. More than a million of those acres have burned in dozens of fires ringing Canada’s massive Lake Winnipeg just north of Minnesota. 

The massive Kenora 51 Fire east of Lake Winnipeg has already burned more than 453,000 acres. You can see the massive smoke shield sprawling across several Canadian provinces and spilling into Minnesota on the Zoom Earth image at the top of this post.

The thickest smoke plumes favored western Minnesota Monday. Air quality readings ranged from good in southeast Minnesota, to unhealthy in the west. 

NOAA’s HRRR near-surface smoke product puts the heaviest smoke into Tuesday morning across central Minnesota with the Twin Cities on the southern edge. 

Stronger southerly winds Wednesday should help push smoke northward and improve air quality over much of Minnesota. 

Most of Minnesota remains dry through Wednesday, but a couple of fronts passing Wednesday and this weekend will bring rain chances. 

NOAA’s GFS model paints pockets of rainfall across different parts of Minnesota from Wednesday into Sunday. 

Forecast models are still working out potential rainfall totals. But early indications are that some more widespread 1 to 2-inch rainfall totals could occur by Monday. There are also indications of some pockets of rainfall above 2 inches.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

We’re tracking smoke plumes and searching for much-needed rainfall. 

Zoom Earth via NOAA

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

NOAA HRRR model near surface smoke product 

Smoky edge for Twin Cities; rain chances emerge later this week

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