Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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I’ve noticed a lot of leaves emerging on our trees during the past few days. Our spring green-up was delayed a bit, so I think it’s appreciated a bit more than normal.

The fishing opener is today in Minnesota. It’ll be breezy today, creating a bit of chop on the bigger lakes, which is good for fishing. 

There have been some scattered showers in the northern half of Minnesota Saturday morning.

Forecast models show that the northern third of Minnesota has the best chance of occasional showers Saturday afternoon and evening, and there could also be a few embedded t-storms at times. Far southeastern Minnesota and parts of western Wisconsin could see a few scattered showers and an isolated t-storm late Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening.

Scattered Sunday morning showers are possible in far southern Minnesota. A few pop-up showers and an isolated t-storm are possible Sunday afternoon/early Sunday evening anywhere in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.  

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the Minnesota Public Radio News 

, and you can see updated weather info on the MPR News 

Saturday temps will be a bit above normal in much of Minnesota, with a lot of 70s. Far northwestern Minnesota will have Saturday highs in the 60s, and far southeastern Minnesota and portions of western Wisconsin will reach the lower 80s. Some spots in the Twin Cities metro area could touch 80. Our average Twin Cities high is 69 degrees this time of year. It’ll be a bit breezy Saturday afternoon.

Sunday highs will be in the 60s in  northern Minnesota, with some lower 70s in the south:

Sunday afternoon wind gusts are expected to be in the 20 to 25 mph range in many areas:

Back to temperatures, Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the upper 60s Monday and Tuesday, then around 70 Wednesday, followed by upper 70s Thursday and lower 70s on Friday.

Flood warnings continue in portions of northeastern and a small part of north-central Minnesota this weekend:

Snowmelt plus generous rains the past couple of weeks are causing very high river and stream levels in some areas and lake levels are also high in many locations.  According to the NWS, the Pigeon River near Grand Portage has exceeded its record water level:

The Rainy River Basin is seeing very high water levels:

Here are details of the flood warning for those areas:

Updates on the flooding in portions of northeastern and north-central Minnesota can be found at the NWS Duluth 

It’s good to see that the Cascade River (about midway between Lutsen and Grand Marais, Minn.) isn’t quite as high today:

I’ve walked under that bridge in the past, so today’s level is still very high.

MPR’s Andrew Krueger posted this video today of Gooseberry Falls (which is roughly midway between Two Harbors and Silver Bay):

According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, ice out on Leech Lake was on May 9 this year. The average ice out date for Leech Lake is April 28.  Ice out on Mille Lacs was May 2; that’s about a week later than their average ice out date of April 25. Upper Red Lake and Lower Red Lake saw their ice go out just 4 days ago, according to the DNR.  The 2022 and historic ice out dates for many Minnesota lakes can be found 

. The map at that DNR site looks like this:

You can zoom in on the map at the DNR site and hover over or click on the icon to get ice out information.

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.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ron Trenda

Author

Today will be the warmest day of the weekend. Rain chances are highest to the north today. We have the updated forecast details.

Warmest weekend temps on Saturday; update on rain chances

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