Chilly start, temps recover nicely Saturday afternoon

Some of us brought potted plants into the house or garage overnight. We’re glad that we did, since most of Minnesota saw overnight lows in the lower to middle 30s, with some 20s in far southern Minnesota.

The low temp at MSP airport through 7 a.m. was 34 degrees, but I saw 30 degrees at Lakeville and Eden Prairie.

Temps rebound, but breezy this afternoon

Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 62 degrees on Oct. 8. Saturday highs will be in the lower 60s in the Twin Cities metro area. We’ll share highs in the 60s with much of southern and central Minnesota, while many locations in far northern Minnesota and western Wisconsin top out in the 50s:

It’ll be breezy by afternoon, with gusts over 20 mph at times:

Forecast gusts are in knots with 19 knots equal to 21.9 mph.

Fall colors

If leaf-peeping is in your weekend plans, you won’t have to go very far. I’ve spotted pockets of excellent fall color in the Twin Cities metro area the past few days. Some trees haven’t yet transitioned to autumn hues and a few trees have already dropped most of their leaves.

My wife took a Wednesday picture of fall colors in Mendota Heights, as seen from the Minnesota Highway 13 bridge:

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources fall color report for Minnesota State Parks and Trails looks like this:

When you look at fall color maps, keep in mind that all deciduous trees are included. The maples can be peaking in a given area when the overall changeover to fall color is 50 percent or less.

The Wisconsin fall color report can be found here.

Update

A new Updraft will be posted around 10:30 a.m. and it’ll include a look at Sunday and the week ahead.

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.