Some spring showers followed by a brief blast of cooler air

A disturbance is producing some rain showers that will mix with snow in portions of northern Minnesota Thursday morning. Briefly colder air moves in with it.

Scattered precipitation Thursday then colder Friday

Parts of northern Minnesota will see scattered areas of rain showers mixing with a little snow. That will continue to track east across central Minnesota Thursday morning, largely clearing the state by midday.

Some areas of central Minnesota and the Twin Cities northern suburbs saw one-quarter to one-half inch of rainfall.

Temperatures will hold steady or even fall through the day Thursday with late afternoon temperatures in the 40s south to just teens and 20s north.

It will be a colder overnight with subfreezing temperatures statewide. Southern Minnesota will see overnight lows in the 20s with just single digits in far northern Minnesota.

Friday will see highs mostly in the 30s and 40s, which is only about 5 to 6 degrees cooler than normal compared to our highs Wednesday which were 20 to 30 degrees above normal.

We warm back up over the weekend with 50s returning to southern Minnesota Saturday afternoon and highs at least in the 60s by Sunday into Monday and Tuesday of next week.

By Sunday, we’re back well into the 60s, potentially near 70 degrees again, a good 20 degrees above normal.

We’re also watching next week as the pattern becomes potentially more active and stormy. A series of storm systems will be passing through the region. We’ll be watching a couple systems that could bring both rain and snow to Minnesota.

The added moisture would be welcome as about a third of Minnesota continues to be in at least moderate drought since the autumn. A stubborn area of severe drought persists in much of Carlton and Pine counties.