Summerlike warmth; late week rain-snow as rivers near flood stage

Tuesday will be very warm and breezy with highs well into the 70s to even near 80 in southern Minnesota. Highs will be in the 50s and 60s in northern Minnesota. Wednesday will be even warmer with a slowly moving system bringing rain Thursday into Sunday with possible snow.

Warm, windy, first 80 for some

Southern Minnesota has a very warm and windy couple of days ahead. Highs Tuesday will be well into the 70s to near 80. Northern Minnesota will see 50s and 60s. Winds will pick up from the south at 10-20 mph with higher gusts.

Highs Wednesday will be even warmer. We’re looking at more widespread 80s in southern Minnesota. The 83-degree record for the Twin Cities set in 1931 is at risk.

Melting snow, rising rivers, more rain ahead

We’ve lost a lot of snow, no surprise, over the past seven days. Here’s a list of official station snow depths a week ago compared to Monday:

• Twin Cities: from 2 inches to 0

• Saint Cloud: 9 to 1

• Duluth: 30 to 23

• International Falls: 22 to 17

• Moorhead: 22 to 15

We’ve melted, on average, about a half foot of snow in those seven days. That’s the equivalent of 1 to 2 inches of water being added to the soil, rivers, and lakes. There remains quite a bit of water in that snow pack also:

We’ll be adding more moisture to it all starting Thursday in northern Minnesota and statewide Friday into Sunday.

The potential for one-half inch to 1.5 inches of water is possible at a critical time.

Most rivers are reaching flood stage by this weekend into early next week. Some rivers, like the St. Croix at Stillwater will be reach major flood stage by Monday. The Red River at Fargo,N.D., reaches moderate flood stage by Saturday morning.