Sunny, comfy Wednesday; Friday thunderstorm chances, weekend heat
Did you see that wild Twin Cities shelf cloud? Here's how it formed
A nice Wednesday with sunshine and more stable conditions. Thursday will also bring sun but it will become a bit warmer with muggy air returning late in the day. We’ll have the chance of thunderstorms Thursday night into Friday. Heat builds in over the weekend.
Rainfall and a shelf cloud!
Much of the Twin Cities area finally saw at least some rainfall. The Twin Cities officially received 0.38 of an inch at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the most rain since Memorial Day.
The Twin Cities is now up to 1.94 inches of a normal 6.27 inches since June 1, that’s just 31 percent of normal, but up from 26 percent earlier this week.
Many people saw the shelf cloud that rolled across the Twin Cities area from the Tuesday evening storm.
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A shelf cloud is different from a wall cloud. A wall cloud is a large rotating cloud that is the base of a large rotating updraft in a super cell thunderstorm, called a mesocyclone.
A shelf cloud develops on the leading edge of rain-cooled, downdraft air out of a thunderstorm. That cooled air moves out from the storm and pushes warmer, more humid air up and over it.
That moisture then condenses out into an elongated low cloud in a bow shape. Oftentimes it’s ragged — like Tuesday evening’s cloud — and those pieces of ragged clouds move upward as that warm air moves into the storm.
Comfortable, stable Wednesday and Thursday
Wednesday and Thursday will be beautiful with sunshine. High temperatures will start to creep back up well into the 80s and even near 90 in southwestern Minnesota Thursday afternoon.
Muggy dew points will also creep back in late Thursday into Friday.
Rain, thunder chances Thursday night into Saturday
Scattered showers and thunderstorms develop late Thursday night into Friday as that warmer, more humid air returns to Minnesota.
There’s a marginal risk (level 1 out of 5) of severe storms Thursday night in western Minnesota.
90-degree temperatures then spread across much of Minnesota Sunday into next week.
