Prompts winter weather advisories as cold air moves in Friday night

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Our latest wave of wildfire smoke is passing through Minnesota.

The thickest part of this smoky plume moves through Monday night into early Tuesday. You can see the nastier red (unhealthy) air quality readings covering most of Minnesota and sliding east as of early Monday evening. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh near-surface smoke output shoes the trend into midday Tuesday. Air quality will improve in the south but another wave of smoke will sag into northern Minnesota.

Our latest air quality alert is in effect until 9 a.m. Tuesday. (See the map at the top of the post). Here are the details:

Southerly winds this week will bring better air quality to southern and western Minnesota moving forward. But some smoke will linger in the north this week.

Here’s the latest forecast discussion from Minnesota Pollution Control Agency:

A line of thunderstorms will cross mainly northern Minnesota overnight into early Tuesday.  NOAA’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh model shows a narrow line of mostly garden-variety thunderstorms sliding southeast overnight. 

There’s a slight chance some may reach the Twin Cities very early Tuesday.

Severe weather risk is low with just a marginal risk for a severe storms. A few cells may produce gusty winds and some hail overnight. 

Highs this week will run in the low 80s in the south with mostly 70s north.

But by Friday another steamy air mass blows in with dew points climbing into the 70s again and highs into the upper 80s.

We’ll run about a 30 percent chance for spotty storms this weekend.

Get ready for another steamy late summer weekend in Minnesota.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

A plume of wildfire smoke passes through Minnesota Monday night. But smoke should clear from west to east Tuesday morning.

Air quality alert until 9 a.m. Tuesday; spotty storms north overnight

Go Deeper.

Like this?