Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Weekend weather: Chance of showers/t-storms; humid air returns

Summery temps in most areas

We’re headed into the final weekend of August and the final weekend of meteorological summer (which runs from June through August).

We’ll see some showers and thunderstorms at times, but we’ll have many dry hours this weekend too.

Parts of southwestern Minnesota could see scattered showers Friday afternoon. A batch of showers and thunderstorms is expected to spread across much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin Friday evening and overnight Friday night, then linger into early Saturday in northern Minnesota and parts of eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Another batch of showers and thunderstorms will affect parts of Minnesota and western Wisconsin late Saturday afternoon into Saturday night.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential rain pattern from 1 a.m. Saturday to 11 p.m. Saturday:

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NAM simulated radar from 1 a.m. Saturday to 11 p.m. Saturday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

NOAA’s High-Resolution Rapid-Refresh (HRRR) model shows a much more scattered rain pattern, especially Saturday evening:

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HRRR simulated radar from 1 a.m. Saturday to 11 p.m. Saturday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

The HRRR model may be factoring in some warm air aloft, which would inhibit thunderstorm initiation in some areas Saturday evening.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms are also possible in Minnesota and western Wisconsin on Sunday.

You can track weekend showers and thunderstorms on the new interactive radar on the MPR weather page. You can pan and zoom the radar display on our site to see precipitation at your location, across all of Minnesota and western Wisconsin and beyond.

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the Minnesota Public Radio News network, and you can see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.

Weekend temps and dew points

Our average Twin Cities high temperature on Aug. 27 is 79 degrees. We’re expecting Twin Cities highs in the lower 80s this Saturday. High temps Saturday afternoon will range from the upper 80s in parts of west-central and southwestern Minnesota to 70s in northeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin:

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Saturday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Saturday afternoon dew points will be in the sticky 60s in many areas:

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Saturday 1 p.m. forecast dew points
National Weather Service

Sunday highs will be well into the 80s in most spots:

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Sunday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Sunday afternoon dew points will be in the sticky 60s, with upper 60s in central and southern Minnesota and much of western Wisconsin:

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Sunday 1 p.m. forecast dew points
National Weather Service

Programming note

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.