Strongest storms and severe risk favor afternoon hours

A cold front is sparking scattered rain and thunder across Minnesota Monday.

Many of the rain cells will be garden variety showers and thunderstorms. But a few may reach severe limits with large hail and damaging winds Monday afternoon. There is also a small but nonzero risk of tornadoes.

Remember you can see up to the minute severe weather information on the MPR News severe weather live blog.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center paints the risk zones for eastern Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Here’s the picture for northeast Minnesota from the Duluth National Weather Service office:

Locally heavy rainfall

The slow-moving front will drop some locally heavy rainfall. Many of us will see up to an inch of rain Monday. Some areas will see as much as 1 to 3 inches, especially north of the Twin Cities. That’s good news for drought areas.

Fall-like week ahead

Sunday was the 27th day of 90-degree heat for the Twin Cities. That’s the most in nine years since we logged 31 days of 90s in 2012.

The rest of this week feels much more like September behind Monday’s cool front. Highs will be in the 60s for most of this week, with a few 70s later in the week for southern Minnesota.

Frost is likely in parts of northern Minnesota this week.

Temperatures may again approach 80 degrees from the Twin Cities into western Minnesota by next Sunday and Monday.