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

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As you might have already heard, drought has vastly expanded in the new Drought Monitor, released every Thursday morning. Sven Sundgaard has a write-up on the drought right 

Based on NOAA data, here’s how much rain several parts of Minnesota would need, spread out over three months, to alleviate drought. There are numbers for all kinds of time stages, but if all that rain came in one month (hypothetically anyways), it would likely cause flooding.

Now obviously, that’s a whole lot of rain. For reference, Minneapolis and St. Paul average just over 31 inches of precipitation over an entire year, melted snow included. To get rid of drought, in many cases, would require about a half-a-year’s worth of rain, but in half that time!

While the lilies and hydrangeas may look great now, this drought is not going to leave soon. Rain is coming, mostly after another hot day. We’ll once again top out in the lower 90s across the region, except perhaps far northern Minnesota where the rain starts the earliest. Along the Canadian border, some booming thunderstorms start bringing downpours around 4:00 p.m. Thursday near Lake of the Woods. For many other spots, especially southwestern Minnesota, the rain gets here just before midnight. 

The latest data makes kind of a Pac-Man shape for rain totals. That would leave Duluth, Brainerd, and east-central Minnesota a lot more dry than it once looked. Rain rolls through the Cities around dawn on Friday. It will be a cooler day with largely overcast skies, but we’re not looking at an all-day rainout by any means. Friday should be in the middle 70s, though so maps are quite a bit warmer. We could have much higher temps in northern Minnesota, where the clouds will not linger. 

The weekend is all dry, so go out and enjoy the more moderate temps! The next best chance is rain is still next Monday night into Tuesday. Some of that front could be pretty powerful. While we’re not in a severe outlook from SPC yet, we would not be surprised if that changes, given the dynamics for this time of the year. Later into next week, we have more quiet weather and some middle 80s for highs across the state. 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ben Cathey

Author

Thunderstorms and heavy rain roll in later Thursday, wrapping up for most by noon Friday. 

Rain on target despite drought rising

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