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

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Goodness, did those storms ever develop in northern Minnesota Friday evening. Two very small tornadoes, with more straight line winds than anything, and exceptionally heavy rain near Warroad and Roseau. A storm chaser’s car was nudged off a dirt road by a strong gust, but not much damage was reported by the actual tornado. Most reading this paragraph stayed totally dry with more crispy lawns forming across Minnesota. 

We have widespread ‘Extreme Heat Warnings’ posted across Minnesota. The clouds will begin to break apart later in the morning all across northern Minnesota, with more sunshine happening after 1:00 p.m. Saturday across the Twin Cities. The rest of the day is dry, just really hot. We’re going to be in the lower-to-middle 90s across the broader region, feeling even hotter with the higher humidity. 

Sunday remains, shall we say, the most tricky forecast challenge for the next week. The start of the day is sunny and just plain hot, overall. We have highs in the middle-to-upper 90s and a feels-like temperature approaching 105 at times. By Sunday evening, the ‘cap’ on the atmosphere is really intense. That means that the air about a mile up is really hot. As surface-level hot air rises, we hit that lid and poof, the storm chance kind of disappears. That said, *if* storms can get moving in central Minnesota, then they’d turn severe, given the high heat and widespread energy to tap into up high. And because of that cap, damaging wind is a possiliblity, but only if the cap breaks down. 

Monday through Wednesday are also really warm, into the lower 90s. Time to get out the sprinklers because there is not much rain out there. That could change on Thursday as some weather maps have big thunderstorms that crumble the heat dome pattern over us for the moment. 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ben Cathey

Author

Saturday may be sluggish to clear out, but we’re really toasty the next several days. 

Extreme heat threat as storms take a pause

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