Weekend weather: Showers, thunderstorm chances highest on Saturday
Update on Thursday-Friday flood watch in northeastern Minnesota
I’ll get to our weekend weather in a moment, after I update you on the flooding potential in northeastern Minnesota through Friday evening.
There have been areas of showers and thunderstorms in roughly the northern half of Minnesota Thursday morning, and those same areas will see off-and-on rain and thunder Thursday afternoon.
Some scattered showers and thunderstorms are possible later Thursday afternoon in west-central and southwestern Minnesota.
Shower and thunderstorm coverage will expand across more of Minnesota and parts of western Wisconsin from Thursday evening into Friday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model shows the potential rain pattern from 6 p.m. Thursday to 6 p.m. Friday:
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Note the waves of heavier rain in northeastern Minnesota and parts of north-central Minnesota.
Flood watch in northeastern Minnesota
Impressive rain totals are forecast for parts of northeastern Minnesota the next few days:
The bulk of the rain is expected to fall in the next 36 to 48 hours.
A flood watch begins Thursday evening and continues through Friday evening in Lake and Cook counties in northeastern Minnesota:
You can track showers and thunderstorms on the new interactive radar on the MPR News weather page. You can pan and zoom the radar display on our site to see rain at your location, across all of Minnesota, western Wisconsin and beyond.
We have updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the Minnesota Public Radio News network, and on the MPR News live weather blog.
Weekend rain?
Scattered showers and a few thunderstorms are possible in Minnesota and western Wisconsin on Saturday. An isolated shower is possible on Sunday. We’ll have more on that Friday.
Weekend temps and dew points
Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 73 degrees on Sept. 17. Metro area highs will be around 80 this Saturday and similar highs are expected in southern Minnesota. Highs will be in the 60s in far northern Minnesota, with a lot of 70s in central Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin:
Saturday dew points will be in the sticky 60s in central and southern Minnesota plus west-central Wisconsin:
Sunday highs will be mainly in the 70s, with 60s in parts of far northern Minnesota:
Sunday afternoon dew points will remain in the 60s in central and southern Minnesota plus west-central Wisconsin:
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. Saturday and Sunday.