Drought continues to expand with more heat Thursday; possible weekend rain
Air quality will be unhealthy at times still Thursday
Drought continues to expand in Minnesota but we have a hopeful chance of rain expanding over the next few days. It will still be hot in southern Minnesota through Friday.
Drought continues to expand in Minnesota
The drought doubled across Minnesota in the past week. Drought now covers 39 percent of Minnesota compared to 19 percent last week. Severe drought now includes Duluth and parts of the North Shore up to Two Harbors. Moderate drought covers all of central Minnesota from the border with the Dakotas to Canada, including all of Cook County.
In the Twin Cities, we’re behind by 5.84 inches since April 1 on rainfall. June has yielded only 0.10 inches of rain, just three percent of normal rain in what should be the wettest month of the year.
Increasing rain chances
The chance of rain will be limited to mainly far western and northern Minnesota Thursday but expands to more of central and northern Minnesota on Friday. By Saturday the chance of rain is likely statewide.
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While the morning and midday look relatively quiet Saturday with some sun and warm, muggy conditions, storms will develop in the afternoon west and push east.
Those storms could be severe, something that’s been rare this season. There’s a slight risk of severe storms in southern Minnesota for Saturday.
There’s even a slight risk of excessive rain Saturday with the storms that develop.
It’s still looking very possible that Minnesota gets a widespread soaking over the weekend. While it won’t be enough to end the drought, it will certainly help a lot.
Beyond that temperatures will cool off during and behind the system, but first we’ll likely hit 90 again Thursday and Friday in parts of southern Minnesota.
Low air quality still Thursday
The forecast for Thursday once again calls for unhealthy air for sensitive groups for most of central and southern Minnesota but may not be as bad as the last two days. Friday is expected to continue to see slight improvement and the weekend weather will further improve air quality.
Check the latest air quality conditions and forecasts here:
Here are air quality forecasts for the next couple of days also: