Wintry mix Thursday night, another storm Friday

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It was great to see the skies brighten in the Twin Cities metro area Sunday afternoon. Northern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin had a lot of sunshine all day.

Parts of southern Minnesota saw heavy rain Wednesday night into Thursday, followed by additional periods of heavy rain Saturday and Saturday night.

St. Peter, Minn., tallied 4.43 inches of rain from Saturday through 7 a.m. Sunday, with a bit more on top of that into Sunday afternoon. 

There are several locations in southern Minnesota with 2 to 4-inch weekend rainfall totals:

Weekend rainfall plus the rain from Wednesday night and Thursday put some areas over 6 inches:

You can read about the flooding caused by recent heavy rains 

You can find updated flood warning information at the following National Weather Service sites: 

Some rivers have been rising rapidly or are forecast to rise substantially in the coming days. You can check the river levels at various locations in Minnesota and western Wisconsin 

. This is how the linked map looked Sunday afternoon:

You can zoom in on the linked map page and get detailed info on river levels at a specific location.

River levels are measured in relation to the height above a local benchmark. In some locations, river levels are listed in feet above sea level.

Here’s the hydrograph of recent, current and forecast levels for the Cottonwood River at New Ulm, which is expected to reach major flood stage this Sunday night:

The Minnesota River at Jordan is forecast to rise more than nine feet between now and next Saturday, reaching moderate flood stage on Wednesday.

The Mississippi River at St. Paul is forecast to rise more than six feet between now and next Sunday, reaching moderate flood stage on Saturday.

A nearby high pressure system will lighten up the winds, allowing areas of fog to develop in central and southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin late Sunday night. Areas of fog will linger into early Monday morning.

Generally rain-free weather is expected in Minnesota and western Wisconsin Monday and Tuesday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential rain pattern from 9 a.m. Monday to 7 p.m. Tuesday:

Rain chances return to Minnesota and western Wisconsin Wednesday night into Thursday, but next Saturday is looking fairly dry.

You can find updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the MPR News 

The average Twin Cities high temperature is 69 degrees on May 15. Monday highs are expected to reach the mid 70s in the metro area.

Most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin will have Monday highs in the 70s, with lower 80s in parts of northwestern and north-central Minnesota:

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the upper 70s to around 80 on Tuesday, followed by mid-70s Wednesday then lower 70s Thursday and upper 60s on Friday.

You can hear my live weather updates on MPR News at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:39 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ron Trenda

Author

Two rounds of significant rain in the past four days caused flooding in parts of southern Minnesota. Rivers are reaching flood stage again in many locations. We have an update on that, plus a look at the week ahead.

Some fog early Monday, then skies brighten; River levels reaching flood stage again

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