‘Unhealthy’ air quality expected in eastern Minnesota through Monday afternoon due to wildfire smoke

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Some places around Minnesota have dropped 60 degrees in the last week to nearly frosty levels, but the heat is expected to return on Thursday. Substantial rain is unlikely anytime soon. Even Saturday’s promising rain threat is sputtering out for Minnesota.

We knew things would be ultra-comfy for most of Minnesota on Wednesday morning, but we were pretty close to freezing in Embarrass and Brimstone, 38 and 36 degrees respectively! 

It was all about the clearing skies and light winds, plus low dew points, leading to atmospheric decoupling Tuesday night. Thanks to MPR News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard for the morning temperatures readouts. 

We have a bunch of clouds pinwheeling around a really weak short-wave low-pressure center. That’s holding temperatures down for all of us on Wednesday. 

Despite the cloud cover lingering Wednesday, there’s really not much rain expected through Friday. There may be a couple of raindrops around the Interstate 90 corridor, the Twin Cities and the Arrowhead. 

Even Saturday’s rain threat, which looked promising for a week, is sputtering out for Minnesota. The block pattern shifts this more into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. 

We may catch some Saharan dust that’s moving around Tropical Storm Bertha in the Gulf of Mexico. The dust will be up high and probably not even be noticeable.

Up north, air quality should be great despite wildfires in the Boundary Waters and Canada. The air quality index was better in Ely than the Twin Cities and most of the rest of the United States Tuesday into Wednesday. 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ben Cathey

Author

Some places around Minnesota have dropped 60 degrees in the last week to nearly frosty levels, but it won’t last much longer.

Summer heat set to return across Minnesota; little hope for big rain

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