Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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Instability showers and clouds will keep northern Minnesota cooler, in the 60s Thursday. Southern Minnesota will see sunshine with highs in the 70s. Heat builds in this weekend again.

Cooler than normal Thursday; showers north

Northern and southern Minnesota will have rather different weather on Thursday. Southern Minnesota will see more sunshine, while northern Minnesota will see substantial cloud cover as lingering instability creates the possibility of showers there as well.

That difference in cloud cover will impact temperatures too. Highs will only be in the 60s in northeast Minnesota while southern Minnesota sees highs in the mid to upper 70s, potentially our coolest day of this month. It’ll be another cool, comfortable overnight with 40s in the northeast and 50s elsewhere.

There’s already preliminary talk of excessive heat for the middle of next week from the Climate Prediction Center.

High temperatures will be near 90 by Sunday already, but by Wednesday next week it appears temperatures could reach the mid-90s to low 100s for portions of southern and western Minnesota.

Along with the increase in temperature of course will come more muggy air. Dew points will be in the 60s by Sunday into next week, possibly near the rather humid 70 degrees at times.

The latest drought monitor is largely unchanged from last week, however, it does not take into account the rainfall from Tuesday evening. That moisture will be considered next week.

The western half of the drought areas (New Ulm to Le Seur and Mankato) saw significant rains of 1 to 2 inches Tuesday evening, which at least should dent the drought there. The Twin Cities area saw significantly less.

Even though some narrow swaths of the north and south metro saw decent rains last weekend, as you can see, it had little effect on overall drought conditions. 

It’s likely with hot, dry weather between now and next week, drought will actually expand in some areas, even if some portions are trimmed back.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Sven Sundgaard

Author

Instability showers and clouds will keep northern Minnesota cooler, in the 60s Thursday. Southern Minnesota will see sunshine with highs in the 70s. Heat builds in this weekend again.


A couple more comfortable days then becoming hot; plus the latest drought monitor

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