Lingering showers south and cooler Tuesday

Clouds and scattered showers linger in southern Minnesota Tuesday through midday. Sunshine is back Wednesday with highs in the 70s for the rest of the week.

Cooler with lingering showers Tuesday, sun returning Wednesday 

Clouds will linger for most of the state except northwestern Minnesota, where there will be some sun.

Scattered rain showers will linger for southern and southeastern Minnesota through midday Tuesday before tapering off Tuesday afternoon and evening for southeastern Minnesota.

It’ll be considerably cooler Tuesday with highs mostly in the 60s and 70s across the state — a full 20 degrees cooler than Monday afternoon’s highs. The warmest temps will be in northwestern Minnesota, where the sun will shine.

We also have continued air quality concerns due to Canadian wildfire smoke through midday Wednesday. The Twin Cities area had some of the worst air quality around Tuesday morning, in the unhealthy for all category.

An air quality alert remains for the state through midday Wednesday. This was the air quality map at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday:

Check the latest air quality conditions, alerts and forecasts here:

Smoke should gradually improve some through the day Tuesday but real improvement will come overnight with the smoke clearing most of Minnesota for Wednesday. Here’s a 24 hour forecast of the smoke plume:

The sun is back Wednesday and it will be a very nice day with highs in the 70s across the state and much improved air quality, too.

We remain mostly in the 70s for daytime highs the rest of the week into the weekend with partly cloudy skies. Spotty shower chances develop in the afternoon hours Friday into the weekend.