A break from the heat; cool Wednesday night

Cooler-than-normal temperatures will prevail for a couple days, something that’s been uncommon lately. Highs will be in the 70s with lows in the 50s and 40s.

Beneficial rains for some the last couple days

Portions of the state saw some beneficial rains. In northeastern Minnesota, much of Lake County saw a swath of 1 inch or more of rainfall and portions of the south and eastern Twin Cities area saw 1 to 2 inches of rainfall.

Fifty-seven one-hundredths (.57) of an inch fell officially at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, making it the second biggest rainfall since mid-May.

Rare stretch of below-normal temps

Temperatures will be much more comfortable the next couple days with highs mainly in the 60s and 70s Wednesday.

Dew point temperatures will continue to drop into the 40s and even 30s in northern Minnesota by late in the day also.

Thursday will mark our third consecutive day of below-normal high temperatures, something that hasn’t happened since mid-May, 6 1/2 weeks ago.

In fact, above normal high temperatures have outnumbered below normal temperatures by a factor of nearly four to one since May 1.

The cooler, dry air will set us up for a cool overnight statewide under clear skies. Temperatures will be the coolest in nearly three weeks.

In fact, some of the typical cold spots in northeastern Minnesota may see lows in the upper 30s early Thursday morning just before sunrise.

The next chance of rain will come into mainly northern Minnesota as an upper level disturbance touches off some spotty showers and a thunderstorm or two.

Southern Minnesota may have to wait until early next week for the next chance of any noteworthy rainfall. High temperatures will again be seasonable, mainly in the 80s south and 70s north by the weekend.