Prompts winter weather advisories as cold air moves in Friday night

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It’s a classic summer week in Minnesota. For many, this may be the best weather week of summer so far. Highs in the 80s, with tolerable dew points in the 60s and a few isolated afternoon pop-up thundershowers? Warm lakes to play in? Does summer get much better in Minnesota? 

Our classic summer weather pattern features mostly clear mornings. As the sun rises up and begins to heat the ground, lumpy cumulus clouds begin to form in the morning. The cloud towers billow in the afternoon sky. Finally they achieve shower and thunderstorms status as they begin to drop isolated rain shafts earthward.

Such is the process of air mass thunderstorms on summer afternoons. Welcome to Minnesota’s mini-Miami summer climate regime. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s FV3 model captures the essence of the pattern again Tuesday afternoon. Watch the isolated showers pop up and drift slowly southeast once again on Tuesday. The forecast model loop below runs between 1 p.m. and 11 p.m. Tuesday. 

Highs Tuesday will run in the 80s once again:

A few more air mass thundershowers may pop up again Wednesday, then mainly dry and hotter weather expands into the upcoming weekend.

A drippy fetch of tropical moisture is ready to surge north into Minnesota later this week. Dew points will hit 70 degrees as soon as Thursday or Friday, and could peak near 80 degrees by Sunday afternoon across southern Minnesota. 

NOAA’s Global Forecast System model shows the tropical moisture plume between Friday and Sunday:

We’ll likely record our first 90-degree temperature of the year in the Twin Cities on Saturday and/or Sunday:

The warmest temperature so far in 2024 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is 89 degrees on June 16. 

Remember last year we sweltered through 33 days of 90-degree heat in the Twin Cities. The average is 13 days.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

It’s a classic summer week in Minnesota. Highs around 80 with a few pop-up afternoon thunderstorms. The hottest weekend of summer so far arrives Saturday. 

Isolated thunderstorms now; hottest weekend of summer ahead

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