Severe drought widens in Minnesota; cooler air coming
After several hot, dry days drought increased in some places
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Thursday will still be very warm and humid but cooler air is coming. Severe drought returns to parts of central Minnesota after recent dry weather.
Drought expands in portions of Minnesota
It’s two steps forward and one step back with Minnesota’s drought.
After making some progress with recent August rainfall, the hot and dry weather over the past week allowed areas in at least severe drought to expand from 23 percent to 33 percent of the state with most of that in central Minnesota.
Areas in extreme drought also expanded from about one percent to nearly two percent of the state. The overall area covered in at least moderate drought remains the same at 73 percent.
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Wednesday brought more record-breaking heat
The 100-degree readings shifted east Wednesday. Several locations topped out in the triple digits. In southeastern Minnesota, Winona had a high of 104, Austin topped out at 102 and Preston reached 100 degrees Wednesday.
La Crosse, Wis., also reached 104 degrees — its second hottest August temperature ever recorded.
The Twin Cities topped out at 98 degrees again Wednesday afternoon breaking another record for the date that had been held since 1948.
While late season hot days have occurred in the past (we’ve hit 100 once even in September), we’ve never had two consecutive days at 98 degrees or warmer this late in the season in recorded Twin Cities history.
Recall that we set a record earlier this year for the most consecutive 80s for that early in the season, the second week of April.
Weekend: Cooler air, spotty rain chances
Steamy air lingers for Thursday, although it will not be as hot as the last couple days. Heat advisories and excessive heat warnings continue through Thursday evening across the southern third or so of Minnesota.
Highs Thursday will still be near 90 for southern Minnesota with muggy dew points making it feel hotter.
A clipper system will touch off the possibility of a few spotty showers and thunderstorms early and late on Friday and bring cooler air behind it.
By the weekend much more comfortable air settles in with highs in the 70s to low 80s and more comfortable dew points.
We could see another chance of rain Sunday night into early Monday.
