Prompts winter weather advisories as cold air moves in Friday night

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Welcome to the Dog Days of summer Minnesota.

The ancient Greeks and Romans noticed the so called Dog Star Sirius risking in the late summer sky near the sun in the morning. They believed the bright star added extra heat to the atmosphere during July into August. 

 are loosely defined as the period between July 3 to around August 11 in the Northern Hemisphere. These weeks are typically the warmest and most humid weeks of the year in most of the northern hemisphere.

Our forecast features southerly winds and a gradual warming trend the rest of this week. High will reach the mid to upper 80s across much of Minnesota Thursday.

By Friday lower 90s will cover parts of the south. (map at top)

Dew points will also rise across Minnesota the rest of this week. 

A combination of Gulf moisture and corn sweat will push dew points into the tropical upper 60s to 70s through Friday. Note how dew points tend to rise during the day as sunshine boosts evaporation from soils and corn sweat pulls additional moisture from corn and other plants into the lower atmosphere.

Thunderstorm coverage looks fairly spotty the next few days across Minnesota. NOAA’s NAM 3 km model is typical of models like the European that develop a storms complex in the Dakotas Thursday evening and track it into Minnesota overnight. The forecast model loop below runs between 7 p.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. Friday.

The highest risk for any severe storms favors the Dakotas into western Minnesota.

A cool front this weekend brings a chance of scattered storms. We may see some more wildfire smoke drift south this weekend across Minnesota once again.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

An increasingly warm and humid summer air mass blows into Minnesota the rest of this week. Highs will reach the lower 90s in the south by Friday afternoon.

Dog Days of summer: Increasingly steamy with spotty storm chances ahead

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