Prompts winter weather advisories as cold air moves in Friday night

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Thursday will be warmer with sunshine through high clouds. Showers and thunderstorms develop late in western Minnesota and fill in east into Friday.

Warmer, dry most of Thursday; rain Friday

Most of eastern and southern Minnesota will remain dry Thursday. There are a few left over sprinkles in east-central Minnesota and western Wisconsin early Thursday along the warm front boundary. Northwestern Minnesota will see more clouds and scattered showers.

Storms will develop in the Dakotas later in the day and start to move into western Minnesota later in the evening.

There’s a marginal risk (level 1 of 5) of severe weather for western Minnesota with even a slight risk (level 2 of 5) around the Fargo-Moorhead region Thursday into Thursday night. The biggest threat is potential high wind gusts and large hail.

High temperatures will be near 80 degrees in southern Minnesota but just in the 50s and 60s in northwestern Minnesota with more clouds and showers.

Showers and thunderstorms will fill in and track east into the overnight Thursday into Friday morning. We’ll have scattered showers and thunder mainly in the morning and midday Friday for eastern Minnesota with more isolated activity in the afternoon. 

The next round of rainfall looks most significant for northwestern Minnesota, where more than 1-2 inches could fall. Central and southern Minnesota will vary from one-half inch to 1 inch, mostly.

The holiday weekend will not be 100 percent dry and totally clear, but it will not be a washout. There will be isolated to spotty chances of rain with occasional clouds. It will be the coolest Memorial Weekend in a few years with highs ranging from the low 70s to low 60s. 

Just 8 percent of the state is considered in at least moderate drought, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor conditions report. That’s down from 11 percent a week ago.

The biggest change was in the northwestern corner of the state. Kittson County is no longer in moderate drought but is now considered abnormally dry.

Of course it’s been a very wet seven days recently. Much of Minnesota has seen 2 to 4 inches of rainfall in the past week. 

In the Twin Cities, it’s our wettest spring since 2019, which was the wettest year on record. Much of that was not considered in this drought report as the data cutoff time is 7 a.m. Tuesday, before Tuesday evening’s torrential downpours. 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Sven Sundgaard

Author

Thursday will be warmer with sunshine through high clouds. Showers and thunderstorms develop late in western Minnesota and fill in east into Friday. 

Warmer Thursday. Next round of rain, thunder move in late in the day

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