Weekend forecast: Dry and breezy; warmest day will be Sunday
Strong to severe storms possible this Thursday evening
I’ll get to the weekend forecast shortly. I first want to mention that scattered thunderstorms may develop late Thursday afternoon in northwestern and west-central Minnesota. The thunderstorms will expand in coverage as they spread to the east and south Thursday evening and overnight Thursday night.
Thunderstorms could arrive in the Twin Cities metro area after 7 or 8 p.m. Thursday and continue on and off into Thursday night.
The Storm Prediction Center of the National Weather Service shows a slight risk of severe weather in portions of Minnesota from Thursday afternoon through Thursday night (which ends at 7 a.m. Friday).
Here’s a discussion of Minnesota severe weather potential Thursday afternoon and Thursday evening/overnight from the Twin Cities office of the NWS:
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The slight risk area (shaded yellow) includes the northwestern part of the Twin Cities metro area. Slight risk means that scattered severe thunderstorms are possible. Again, metro area severe weather chances are mainly Thursday evening and into Thursday night. An isolated severe thunderstorm is possible in the dark-green shaded areas on the NWS graphic.
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.
A quiet weekend
Rain isn’t expected in Minnesota and western Wisconsin this Saturday or Sunday.
Saturday highs will be mainly in the 70s:
There’ll be some 60s in northeastern Minnesota.
Saturday dew points will be in the comfortable 40s and 50s:
Sunday highs will be in the summery 80s:
Sunday dew points will rise into the sticky 60s:
Fall color update
Our peak fall colors don’t typically arrive in the Twin Cities metro area until sometime in October.
Fall colors are emerging in parts of northern Minnesota. Here’s the latest fall color report from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources:
The areas shaded yellow are showing the most changeover to fall colors at this point. Keep in mind that all deciduous trees are included in the fall color report, not just maples.
Most of the 25-50 percent fall color coverage is in northern Minnesota, but there is an area of significant fall color from south-central Sibley County through parts of Nicollet, Brown and Watonwan counties.
It’ll be interesting to watch how our fall colors spread across Minnesota over next two to three weeks!
Wisconsin fall color info can be found here.
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.