A better-than-average Memorial Day weekend
Scattered rain, but more dry hours this weekend. Will June start warm?
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Welcome to the first of the Big 3 warm-season holiday weekends in Minnesota!
Memorial Day is climatologically the wettest of the three major warm-season holiday weekends. If we can get two out of three mostly dry days, that’s a bonus this time of year.
My MPR News colleague and climate expert Mark Seeley reports that Minnesota is bumping on 5 inches of rainfall as an average statewide. That makes this May one of the top 13 wettest since records began in the 1800s.
In the map below, you can see how wet this month has been. The monthly rainfall total from the Midwest Regional Climate Center shows 3 to more than 5 inches around Minnesota.
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Check out Iowa, where most of the state has recorded 5 inches this month with local rainfall totals of more than 10 inches!
Scattered rain this weekend
We’ll enjoy many more dry hours than rainy hours this weekend across Minnesota. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh model catches the two main chances for rain this weekend. Check out the map below.
A band of scattered showers forms through central Minnesota Saturday afternoon. Then another cluster of showers and some embedded thunder roll through southeastern Minnesota, grazing the Twin Cities area Saturday night into midday Sunday.
The forecast model loop below runs between 1 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
A few widespread showers may pop up again on Memorial Day.
Temperatures this weekend start frosty in northwestern Minnesota Saturday morning but will warm to the 50s and 60s north to 70s south Saturday afternoon.
Sunday brings similar temperatures statewide.
Memorial Day also brings highs in the 70s south with mainly 60s north.
NOAA’s temperature outlook for the first week of June slightly favors warmer-than-normal temperatures.
Cue the mosquitoes.
