Warmer and potentially wetter pattern evolving?
Outlooks favor above-average precipitation across Minnesota in late September
Meteorological summer ended Sept. 1, but summerlike warmth may not be over this month in Minnesota. Our current cooler spell appears ready to give way to significantly warmer air again over the next week.
I wrote Tuesday about the frost advisory for northern Minnesota, but temperatures will push above 80 degrees across much of southern and western Minnesota again by Thursday with 70s up north.
A minor temperature speed bump on Friday and Saturday then gives way to a much warmer weather pattern as we move into next week. Highs in the 80s are likely to return to western Minnesota as soon as Monday.
A string of days in the upper 70s and lower 80s looks quite possible again next week. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model below is cranking out highs in the 80s for most of southern and western Minnesota by Wednesday, Sept. 20.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s temperature outlooks strongly favor warmer-than-average temperatures across Minnesota as we move into late September. You can see the six to 10-day outlook at the top of this post.
The current eight to 14-day outlook also favors milder-than-average air for the last week of September.
Wetter pattern evolving?
“Never forecast rain in a drought.”
That phrase has made the rounds in weather forecasting for decades. So I’m still skeptical that a fully-wet pattern shift will evolve in late September, but there are signs our chances for rainfall may increase.
Our next best chance for rain comes Friday with a cold frontal passage. NOAA’s outlooks are starting to show signs of above-average precipitation as we move through late September.
Stay tuned.