Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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It’s been a dry summer for parts of Minnesota. 

The Twin Cities recorded just 1.18 inches of rain in July. That’s nearly three inches below the average of 4.06.

Over the past 30 days, most of the areas that recorded average rainfall (green on the map below) were across southern and northern parts of Minnesota. You can see on the 30-day precipitation departure that the Twin Cities and much of central Minnesota recorded well below average rainfall.  

That’s why we’re scanning the weather maps for additional rainfall these days, and a few forecast models suggest there could be some soaking rains for parts of Minnesota this weekend.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Forecast System model paints scattered, slow-moving thunderstorm potential. 

We don’t rely on this for specific storm coverage and timing this far out, but it may be informative for the overall pattern of scattered heavier rain cells this weekend. The loop below runs between 7 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Sunday.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model cranks out some impressive rainfall totals through this weekend. Again, it’s early. But I haven’t seen forecast model output for weeks that suggest this widespread rainfall totals of one to more than two inches. 

We’ll keep an eye on forecast models to see if the potential for soaking rains this weekend continues.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

A few forecast models suggest there could be some soaking rains for parts of Minnesota this weekend.

European model (ECMWF) precipitation output

Soaking rain potential this weekend?

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