Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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Some impressive thunderstorms hit parts of Minnesota Thursday evening. There were spotty reports of large hail, including  baseball-sized hail at 6:10 p.m. Thursday at Belgrade, Minn., (Stearns County) and baseball-sized hail at 7:54 pm near Ellsworth, Minn., (Nobles County).

Golf-ball sized hail was reported in Albany (Stearns County) at 6:51 p.m. and there were multiple reports of ping-pong sized hail Thursday evening, including at Cokato (Wright County) around 8 p.m., where some trees were reported down as well.

Rainfall at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was just 16/one-hundredths (.16) of an inch. Holman Field Airport in St. Paul reported 49/one-hundredths (.49) of an inch. I noticed some heavier amounts on radar last evening, so it will be great to see the rainfall analysis later this morning.

Due to a bit of instability in the atmosphere, scattered showers and thunderstorms could develop in Minnesota and western Wisconsin later this afternoon into this evening.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential rain pattern from noon Friday to 11 p.m. Friday:

NOAA’s FV3 forecast model shows a similar rain pattern for that time period:

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

Our air quality is good over most of Minnesota at 7 a.m. Friday, but it is expected to deteriorate, due to Canadian wildfire smoke.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has posted an air quality alert for Minnesota from 8 a.m. today to 3 p.m. Saturday:

Here are details of the alert, from the MPCA:

Orange air quality: Unhealthy for sensitive groups

The average Twin Cities high temperature is 84 degrees this time of year. Metro area highs are forecast to reach the upper 80s this afternoon.

Most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin will have highs in the 80s today:

There will be a few 70s in northeastern Minnesota.

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

An air quality alert has been issued for Minnesota. We have details on that, plus a thunderstorm chance for later today.

Air quality alert starts today; Chance of a late afternoon/evening thunderstorm

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