Taste of summer: Steamy Memorial Day emerging

Our holiday weekend looks summery

601 summer
Lake Minnetonka ready for summer in 2015.
Paul Huttner | MPR News 2015

Cue the mosquitoes?

A summerlike air mass looks ready to push north into Minnesota during the Memorial Day weekend.

Clouds linger across parts of eastern Minnesota Thursday. Then, our warming trend begins in earnest on Friday. Bright sunshine, blue skies and temperatures into the 70s will make for one of the best weather days in Minnesota this year.

Forecast high temperatures Friday
Forecast high temperatures Friday
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

If you’re able to get an early start on the holiday weekend, good for you. Friday looks nothing short of spectacular.

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80s this weekend

Saturday and Sunday bring lower 80s to southern Minnesota with mostly 70s up north.

Forecast high temperatures Saturday
Forecast high temperatures Saturday
NOAA

Humidity levels will still be fairly comfortable Saturday and Sunday with dew points mostly in the 50s to lower 60s.

Steamy Memorial Day

Memorial Day itself looks more like the Fourth of July on the weather maps. If you’ve been waiting for a steamy summery day, Monday looks like your day. Highs likely reach the upper 80s to near 90 in southern Minnesota Monday afternoon.

Forecast high temperatures Monday
Forecast high temperatures Memorial Day
NOAA

Dew points will surge into the 60s to near 70 degrees Monday. Check out the moisture surge as dew points surge on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Forecast System model between Saturday and Sunday evening.

Dew point forecast
Dew point forecast between 7 a.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday
NOAA, via Tropical Tidbits

Spotty storms

There will be a few a spotty boomers drifting through our summery air mass this weekend. NOAA’s GFS model gives you the idea of a couple of waves of scattered storms this weekend.

NOAA GFS model Saturday and Sunday
NOAA GFS model Saturday and Sunday
NOAA, via Tropical Tidbits

It’s still too early to rely on forecast models for precise timing and coverage, but this gives you the idea of a few passing storms. It’s likely there will be far more hours of sunshine than rain this weekend.