Cooler pattern returns this week

A cold front is sliding across Minnesota Monday, touching off spotty showers and dropping temperatures for the remainder of the week. We’ll warm again over the upcoming weekend.

Cooler temperatures return with cold front

We’ll squeeze out one more mild day across southern Minnesota as a cold front advances from north to south Monday. Highs will be in the 60s to near 70 degrees in the southeastern corner of the state, while northwestern Minnesota remains in the 40s only.

We’ll also have blustery northwest winds at 10 to 20 mph in eastern Minnesota with 15 to 30 mph speeds in western Minnesota. Gusts in western Minnesota will be near 40 mph.

There’s not a lot of available moisture for the cold front but spotty showers are possible, especially for the northern half of the state along and ahead of the front. Far northern Minnesota may even see snow showers.

Temperatures will be cool again Tuesday into at least Thursday as the same upper-low that kept us cool last week returns. A blocking high in the North Atlantic and Greenland is allowing that area of cool, cloudy weather to bounce back westward.

Highs Tuesday through Thursday will be mostly in the 50s south and 40s north. Those readings will run about 10 degrees cooler than normal with Tuesday temperatures nearly 15 to 20 degrees cooler than normal in northwestern Minnesota.

We’ll also have to watch for some potential frost again, especially Tuesday night. Overnight lows will fall into the low to mid-30s across southern Minnesota. The Twin Cities suburbs and beyond will see at least patchy areas of frost.

Warmer temperatures return in time for Mother’s Day on Sunday when we could be near 70 degrees again for southern Minnesota. It also looks like we’ll have some showers possible Sunday though, too.