Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Weekend weather: Showers, storms possible Saturday; mostly dry Sunday

Flood watch continues in northeastern Minnesota through Friday evening

I’ll get to our weekend weather in a moment, after I update you on the flooding potential in northeastern Minnesota through Friday evening.

Portions of northern Minnesota have seen between one and two inches of rain in the past 24 hours:

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Rainfall totals from 7 a.m. Thursday to 7 a.m. Friday
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration / U.S. Geological Survey

A small area in northwestern Minnesota received three inches of rain since Thursday morning.

Periods of rain and embedded thunderstorms will continue Friday afternoon and evening in much of north-central and northeastern Minnesota and parts of far northwestern Minnesota. Scattered showers and thunderstorms are possible elsewhere in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

A flood watch continues through Friday evening in Lake and Cook counties in northeastern Minnesota:

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Rain update for northeastern Minnesota
National Weather Service

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.

Saturday rain update

We could see a few very scattered showers and an isolated thunderstorm during the morning and early afternoon hours of Saturday followed by a better chance of showers and thunderstorms by late Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model shows the potential rain pattern from 4 a.m. Saturday to 11 p.m. Saturday:

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Simulated radar from 5 a.m. Saturday to 11 p.m. Saturday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

The daylight hours of Sunday look rain-free in many areas, with forecast models showing a chance of a shower or thunderstorm in far southern Minnesota and northeastern Minnesota. Check forecast updates.

Weekend temps and dew points

Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 73 degrees on Sept. 17. Parts of the metro area and southern Minnesota could top 80 degrees this Saturday. Highs will be in the 70s Saturday afternoon in central Minnesota and parts of northern Minnesota, with some 60s in the far north:

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Saturday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Saturday dew points will be in the sticky 60s in central and southern Minnesota plus west-central Wisconsin:

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

Sunday highs will be mainly in the 70s:

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Sunday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Sunday dew points remain in the 60s in many areas, including the Twin Cities:

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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. Saturday and Sunday.