Smoke clearing out; mostly dry week coming
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Wildfire smoke has been lingering from central to southern Minnesota and west central Wisconsin on Sunday. Air quality has been in the unhealthy (red) category for southwestern Minnesota through the day.
Relief from the smoke
A cold front sliding southward will push the smoky air out of all of Minnesota, except maybe the southwestern corner around Rock County, and most of Wisconsin by Monday. Fires still rage in western and eastern Canada. I’m sure we will experience more smoky episodes this summer.
Other than the smoke, Sunday has been a pleasant summer day with seasonable temperatures and low humidities. Widely scattered showers and possibly a thunderstorm or two will continue into the evening for northern and eastern Minnesota and into Wisconsin. As of late afternoon, most of the rain is in northeastern Minnesota and is light.
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We need rain!
An extremely dry May-June has been continued through the first half of July. Just three-quarters of an inch of rain fell at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport so far this month. The average rainfall for this period would be a little more than two inches.
The dryness has been widespread. Mankato, Redwood Falls and Saint Cloud all reported about a half inch of rain in the first half of July. Brainerd picked up only two-tenths of an inch while Hibbing was even drier with only one-tenth of an inch. Duluth has been dry this month, also, but measured more than four inches in June.
How about chances of rain this week?
Isolated showers are possible in northeastern Minnesota on Monday. A better chance of showers and thunderstorms should come our way on Wednesday.
But no widespread soakers seem likely in the foreseeable future. The drought will continue.
No temperature extremes this coming week
Monday will be a bit cooler than average. Expect highs from the 60s northwest to the mid 70s in the Twin Cities and southwest. Then look for a minor warming trend for Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday might be the warmest day of the week before temperatures ease back to seasonally normal.
