Stray severe storms to go with big heat
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Friday and the start of Saturday are the last, best, times to get outside before the thermometer starts climbing and the heat starts getting really intense. Some of our hottest weather in four-plus years is just days away.
We could have some strong overnight thunderstorms, primarily in northern Minnesota, but other spots could be heading towards a flash drought.
There are a couple of tiny showers in the vicinity of Interstate 90 as I type this Updraft. Most of the rain, which is along a warm front, will scoot north-northeast up the Minnesota border with both Dakotas as Friday progresses.
We can’t rule out a really brief and uneventful shower around the Twin Cities later Friday but they aren’t a huge deal. Highs will be closer to average, right around 80 degrees. As Sven Sundgaard said to Mandy and I this week: “Remember the cool June? Yeah me either.”
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This weekend kicks off the hot weather. It will not all happen at once. Saturday starts off in the lower 60s for much of Minnesota, and in the 50s along the North Shore of Superior. More isolated showers are in the Red River valley, plus farther to the east, up near Brainerd and Bemidji.
A couple tenths of an inch of rain are possible. The humidity will be a little more noticeable, though not ‘in your face’ like early next week will be. We’re talking about highs in the lower-to-middle 80s on Saturday.
I still think we could get a few rumbles of thunder in central Minnesota, perhaps even the Twin Cities, through late Sunday morning. This shows up as a bowing line, from the early hours of Sunday, starting along the South Dakota and Minnesota border.
This moves south of I-94, rushing east towards dawn in the cities. This should be out of here before noon on Sunday, keeping us marginally cooler. We should still be in the upper 80s later Sunday, however.
Monday through the rest of the work-week is the bullseye for the heat. High temperatures are likely to be close to 100 degrees in southwestern Minnesota, south of the Minnesota River valley. The heat index is closer to 105-110 degrees.
The heat is the big talker and the big news story but there may be a few severe thunderstorms in far northern parts of Minnesota the rest of the week.
From MPR News meteorologist Mandy Thalhuber: “If you’re unfamiliar with the HeatRisk program and what each category means, I wrote a previous Updraft article explaining how it works.”
