Weekend weather: May warmth; Saturday shower chance in far northern Minnesota

I’ll get to the pleasant weekend forecast in a moment, after this reminder about severe weather awareness week in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

April 8 through April 12 is severe weather awareness week in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The National Weather Service is focusing on a different aspect of severe weather each day this week:

Active links to each daily topic can be accessed here.

Sirens will sound at 1:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Thursday as part of severe weather awareness week:

Tornado Watch/Warning Drills

The National Weather Service, Wisconsin Emergency Management, the Minnesota Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and other state, county and local agencies have come together to host Severe Weather Awareness Week activities. Thursday, April 11th is the day for tornado drills and working on your safety plans.  The schedule is as follows:

(all times CDT)

1:45 PM:  Most counties in Wisconsin and Minnesota will activate outdoor warning siren systems and other notification systems. The choice to activate sirens is a decision made by the counties and cities. The NWS and others will also post on social media. NOAA Weather Radio will also activate with the Routine Weekly Test code.

6:45 PM:  Many counties in Wisconsin and Minnesota will activate outdoor warning siren systems and other notification systems. The choice to activate sirens is a decision made by the counties and cities. The NWS and others will also post on social media. NOAA Weather Radio will also activate with the Routine Weekly Test code.

Remember that sirens can fail and you are not always in an area where sirens are audible. It’s always good to have multiple ways to receive severe weather warnings. NOAA weather radio, broadcast media, and phone apps can alert you to warnings in your area.

Weekend temps

 The average Twin Cities high temperature is 56 degrees on April 13. Metro area highs will be in the 70s this Saturday.

Much of central and southern Minnesota will reach the 70s Saturday afternoon, with 60s and 50s for most of the northern third of Minnesota:

A few spots in southwestern Minnesota could touch 80 degrees. Areas of Cook County near Lake Superior will have Saturday highs in the upper 40s.

It’ll be breezy Saturday afternoon, with some gusts over 20 mph in central and southern Minnesota:

Sunday highs will be in the 70s in central and southern Minnesota, with mainly 60s in the northern third of Minnesota:

Saturday shower chance far northern Minnesota

Most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin will have a dry weekend. Parts of far northern Minnesota could see a few showers on Saturday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale Forecast System model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 7 a.m. Saturday to 7 p.m. Saturday:

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

Drought update

The metro area and parts of central Minnesota saw beneficial rain last Sunday. Much of northern Minnesota and portions of far southeastern Minnesota remain in drought. Here’s the latest drought update from U.S Drought Monitor:

The percentage of Minnesota in drought is 44.33 percent. The 43.33 percent includes 11.43 percent of Minnesota in severe drought (shaded orange) and 32.90 percent in moderate drought (beige).

The numbers under each color in the table refer to the percentage of Minnesota in that drought category plus the percentage of Minnesota in the higher drought categories to the right.

The yellow-shaded area on the map shows 42.68 percent of Minnesota as abnormally dry but not currently in drought, according to U.S. Drought Monitor.

Parts of Wisconsin and much of Iowa are also in drought right now, with extreme drought (red) in a portion of eastern Iowa:

Programming note

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.