Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Warm with rain, thunder chances into the weekend

Sunday will be warmest, driest day of the weekend

4 day fcst MPX
Forecast total potential precipitation and conditions through the weekend
National Weather Service

Spotty showers and thunder will be confined to southern Minnesota Friday and become more widespread statewide Friday night into Saturday. Most showers look to be north Sunday with isolated storms late Sunday south.

Friday showers

A frontal boundary is visible on satellite imagery early Friday. This slowly moving warm front will be the focus for spotty showers and some thunder Friday into Friday night.

MN vis
Visible satellite imagery with streamlines showing a frontal boundary across southern Minnesota early Friday.
College of DuPage weather lab

Southern Minnesota will be the focus for these occasional showers with some thunder, especially into Friday evening and the overnight with some daytime heating.

Precip FRI 8
Forecast precipitation 8 a.m. Friday through 12 a.m. Saturday
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, via Pivotal Weather

High temperatures will be a bit cooler due to the cloud cover, but still near or slightly above normal, mainly in the 60s with cooler readings around Lake Superior.

fri hi 8
Forecast highs Friday
National Weather Service

Scattered storm chances Saturday


The best chance of rainfall will be Saturday for most of Minnesota as we see more scattered showers and some thunderstorms. The chances shift more to northern Minnesota on Sunday. Here’s a breakdown of rainfall probabilities for Friday through Monday:

POP 4 days
Rainfall chances Friday through Monday across Minnesota
National Weather Service

Embedded waves moving through the upper-level ridge aloft cause these occasional rain chances. These pulses of energy are enough to produce lift, touching off scattered showers and thunder.

VORT
Forecast vorticity -- spin -- aloft (orange, red areas) denotes areas of lift in the atmosphere, known as short waves.
Natoinal Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, via Pivotal Weather

High temperatures Saturday will again be mainly in the 50s and 60s with the increased cloud cover.

sat hi 8
Forecast highs Saturday
National Weather Service

Sunday will be warmer across southern Minnesota as most of us look to be dry most of the day with more peeks of sunshine.

Sun hi 8
Forecast highs Sunday
National Weather Service

Overall temperatures remain above normal into next week even though the pattern continues to be somewhat unsettled.

850 T anom loop
Forecast temperature anomalies (difference from normal) through Tuesday
NOAA, via Pivotal Weather