Prompts winter weather advisories as cold air moves in Friday night

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Get ready for another ride on Minnesota’s temperature roller coaster. 

A series of fronts sweep through Minnesota this week. Wednesday's warm front pushed temperatures into the 80s as expected across central and southern Minnesota. But see those 60s up north on the map below? That air mass is coming south on Thursday. 

On the map below, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s FV3 model shows the temperature trend over the next 24 hours. See the 80s getting swept south as temperatures fall into the 40s by early Thursday? Then watch the recovery into the 60s on Thursday afternoon. 

We haven’t seen significant rainfall in the Twin Cities in 35 days since Aug. 29 when we got 0.37 of an inch. Our warmest and driest September on record has sucked moisture out of the soil rapidly. 

I fully expect we’ll see some areas of severe drought emerging on Thursday morning’s U.S. Drought Monitor update. Last week’s map showed 80 percent of Minnesota in drought or abnormally dry conditions. 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

Significant temperature swings ahead through the weekend. 

Temperature speed bumps ahead this week

Go Deeper.

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