Another wintry storm Friday

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

The latest drought monitor shows the biggest improvement of the summer. Smoke is returning to the skies of Minnesota prompting air quality alerts. Heat builds back in for the weekend.

The latest drought monitor released Thursday morning shows the biggest improvement in Minnesota’s drought of the summer thus far. Two of three areas of extreme drought have disappeared and the Twin Cities area is no longer in severe drought. The areas of Minnesota in at least moderate drought dropped from 80 percent to 73 percent.

Rainfall over the past seven days cut across central Minnesota where the biggest improvement was seen. A large area of central and southern Minnesota saw one to three inches of rain during the period between drought monitor updates.

Smoke is blowing back into the skies of Minnesota Thursday, reducing air quality. Expect conditions to deteriorate through the day.

Much of Minnesota is expected to see air that is unhealthy by the end of the day Thursday into Friday.

Check the latest air quality conditions, alerts and forecasts here:

Current air quality conditions

Air quality forecasts

Thursday will be cooler and windy behind last night’s cool front. Highs will mainly be in the 70s Thursday afternoon. Dew points have dropped into the 50s and northern Minnesota could even see dew points in the 40s, which is more like September kind of air.

Friday will see more seasonable temperatures, back into the 80s for most with temperatures really heating up this weekend. Highs by Saturday will be into the 90s.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Sven Sundgaard

Author

The latest drought monitor shows the biggest improvement of the summer. Smoke is returning to the skies of Minnesota prompting air quality alerts. Heat builds back in for the weekend.


Thursday will be cooler and still windy, but from the northwest. Smoke is back in the skies creating air quality issues. Heat builds in for the weekend.

Drought improves across Minnesota; more air quality alerts

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox