Temps and winds ramp up on Sunday
Thunderstorms possible in northern Minnesota Sunday evening
Minnesotans enjoyed plenty of sunshine and pleasant temperatures on Saturday, along with comfortable dew points.
The Saturday afternoon high temperature at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 78 degrees. That’s a few degrees warmer than our average Sept. 18 Twin Cities high of 72 degrees. Sunday will be even warmer.
Temperature trends
Sunday highs reach the 80s across most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin:
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Twin Cities metro area highs will be mainly in the upper 80s, but a stray 90 is also possible.
Sunday dew points will be in the sticky 60s in most areas:
Sunday will be windy, with a few afternoon wind gusts over 30 mph possible in the Twin Cities metro area and some higher gusts at times in northern and western Minnesota.
Back to forecast highs, Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the mid 70s on Monday. Highs retreat to the mid 60s for Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by around 70 on Thursday and Friday.
Looking ahead to the end of the month and the start of October, we could see temps that are near normal or a bit above normal. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows a slight tendency for above-normal temps in Minnesota and western Wisconsin from Sept. 26 through Oct. 2:
I should mention that our average Twin Cities high temperature is 69 degrees on Sept. 26; even highs in the lower 70s would be a bit above normal by the last week of September.
Thunderstorm chances?
Scattered showers and thunderstorms could develop in parts of northwestern and north-central Minnesota late Sunday afternoon, and anywhere in northern Minnesota Sunday evening. Shower and thunderstorm chances spread to the south and east overnight Sunday night. Periods of showers and thunderstorms are expected across much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin Monday and Monday evening.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential rain pattern Sunday afternoon through Monday evening:
An isolated severe thunderstorm is possible in northern Minnesota and parts of west-central Minnesota Sunday evening and overnight Sunday night. Here’s the severe weather discussion for that period, from the Duluth NWS office:
You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the Minnesota Public Radio News network, and you can see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.
Fall color update
Our peak fall colors don’t typically arrive in the Twin Cities metro area until sometime in October.
Impressive fall colors are already popping in parts of northern Minnesota. Here’s the Saturday fall color report from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources:
The areas that are 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! Find more details on parks to visit here.
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.