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

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

What’s not to love? We just had solid rains, the skeeter count is low, air quality remains excellent, and the breeze is flowing in some lower humidity. According to the newest Metropolitan Mosquito Control District’s count around the Twin Cities, the human-biting count was only about half its 10-year-average for those late July dates. They do warn, however, that vector-borne diseases peak in August, so things are not all quiet. That said, you might now get bitten quite as much! It’s a little different in Scandia and May, on the far northeastern suburbs of the Cities, where the count was a little higher. 

The UV metric was pretty darn high Saturday, but everything else was looking great considering we just had the really helpful rain. Enjoy the lower humidity, as we fall down to lowers ranging from the upper 50s in the Arrowhead to the lower 60s across the rest of Minnesota. There may once again be a hint of dense fog in river valleys where wind doesn’t punch all the way down to the waterline. 

Sunday is - well - almost a repeat of Saturday. We are mostly dry (maybe a sprinkle along the lake boundary for Superior along the North Shore) and fairly warm, though humidity is kept in check behind the last front.

The main active weather event of the workweek is here on Monday night into Tuesday’s pre-dawn hours. There’s still that level two-out-of-five severe weather risk for northwestern Minnesota, from the top of the Minnesota River Valley over into north-central Minnesota, capped off near Lake of the Woods. If those areas sound familiar, it’s because that’s been the epicenter of the severe weather events so far this summer. From hail to tornadoes, they mostly have been in the northwestern parts of the state in summer 2026. The timeline is roughly 8:00 p.m. Monday until about 3:00 a.m. Tuesday. What’s new is that, not only are the storms weakening as they move out from the Dakotas, but now, there’s barely any rain left over for the rest of the state once the severe threat wraps up early Tuesday. Totally a feast or famine rain event.

Wednesday through Friday is a little cooler, upper 70s in lieu of the middle 80s, and is mostly dry once again. The new drought monitor, released each Thursday, will be really interesting to see the first week in August. Despite the really have rain a couple of days ago, it’s somewhat unclear what will happen with drought - we still need more than a foot of rain in many places to undo that. 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ben Cathey

Host

What’s not to love? We just had solid rains, the skeeter count is low, air quality remains excellent, and the breeze is flowing in some lower humidity.

Enjoy the weekend before stray severe chances

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox