Weekend weather: Near-normal temps; Sunday rain chances favor northern MN

Our Thursday and Friday temperatures will be cool, but temps will rebound a bit this weekend.

The average Twin Cities high temperature is 84 degrees on July 8. Metro area highs will top out around 80 degrees this Saturday, and much of Minnesota will have highs in the 70s:

rt0708h6 — Saturday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Sunday highs reach the lower 80s in southern and central Minnesota, with mainly 70s to the north:

rt0709h6 — Sunday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Rain chances

Minnesota and western Wisconsin could see some scattered showers and thunderstorms Friday evening and overnight Friday night.

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A few scattered showers and an isolated thunderstorm could linger into Saturday morning in parts of northeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

The best chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms on Sunday will be in the northern third of Minnesota, mainly Sunday afternoon and evening. An isolated shower or thunderstorm is possible elsewhere in Minnesota plus western Wisconsin Sunday afternoon and evening.

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the MPR News network.

Drought update

This week’s report from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows that 56.73 percent of Minnesota is now in drought.

Specifically, 8.48 percent of Minnesota (shaded orange) is in severe drought, with 48.25 percent (shaded beige) in moderate drought:

rt0706drt2 — Drought monitor posted July 6
National Drought Mitigation Center

The yellow-shaded areas — 41.29 percent of Minnesota — are abnormally dry, but not yet in drought; 98 percent of Minnesota is either abnormally dry or in drought.

It should be noted that the rainfall data cutoff for the map is 7 a.m. on the Fourth of July. The late-morning July Fourth downpours that dropped between one-half inch and 1 inch of rain in parts of Hennepin County and the eastern Twin Cities metro area are not included in the drought analysis.

Here’s the rainfall from 7 a.m. on July 4 to 7 a.m. on July 5 that was not factored into the drought analysis:

rt0705rain — Rainfall from 7 a.m. July 4 to 7 a.m. July 5
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Much of Iowa and Wisconsin are also in drought, with large areas of severe drought in southern Wisconsin and across much of Iowa. There are smaller areas of extreme drought (shaded red) in Iowa and Wisconsin: