Windy weather continues with chances of rain

CATHY WURZER: Well, looking at the forecast here, I have to ask myself, are we finally digging ourselves out of a drought? You know, looking at the rain chances, ah, maybe. April showers, wind-- well, they've certainly been a theme recently. Our chief meteorologist, Paul Huttner, is here to talk about all of it. Hey, how are you doing?

PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, I'm doing great on this bluebird day, and I don't have any bird noises for you, Cathy, but I might have some Wurzer weather on the horizon.

CATHY WURZER: [GASPS] What? I'm very excited about that. Now, for folks who are just not familiar with the concept of Wurzer weather, we're talking, well, temperatures 80 and above with just a hint of humidity in the air.

PAUL HUTTNER: A little skosh of higher dew point.

CATHY WURZER: A skosh of-- yeah, I like a skosh of high dew points. And I do like warm temperatures. So that's what Wurzer weather is. OK, let's first, though, talk about this ridiculously windy April that we're experiencing. What the heck?

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's been windswept out there. Now we know April is the windiest month of the year in Minnesota. Our average wind speed, 11.5 miles an hour. But this has been a really gusty month, Cathy. We've had 21 of 24 days so far this month with wind gusts over 30 miles an hour in the Twin Cities, really, all across Minnesota.

And the record just happened two years ago. We had 24 days with gusts over 30. Now, it looks like Friday, we're going to gust over 30 again. So I think we'll have at least 22 days. So this is one of the gustiest Aprils on record that we've seen. So it's not your imagination. It's been super windy out there this month.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, yeah. Boy, I tell you. I drove to Duluth yesterday-- I had two hands on the wheel absolutely. I'm wondering about these rain chances. They look pretty impressive.

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, they do. And until then, just a nice little period here today. A bluebird sky, lighter winds today. That's nice. We'll hit 58 in the Twin Cities. Lots of 50s around Minnesota today. Tomorrow, a classic spring day. Sunshine, 67 in the Twin Cities, 60s central southern Minnesota, 50s north. A bit of a southeast breeze.

But then those rain chances that you're talking about, and there's two storms. One comes on Friday, one comes on Sunday, and we might get a little bit of a break in between Saturday to get in some outdoor activities.

The first system, we could have showers and thunderstorms moving into southern Minnesota overnight, Thursday night, into Friday morning. Some of the models are saying Twin Cities. You could have some thunder Friday morning on Morning Edition maybe. Doesn't look severe, but that first system could drop an inch of rain throughout Friday.

The second one Sunday, maybe another inch of rain the forecast models are saying. Scattered showers, thunderstorms on Sunday. Forecast models, Cathy, cranking out about 1 to maybe as much as 3 inches of rain for most of Minnesota. Central, southern, northeast, maybe far northwest, does not get as much rain, and they can use it, too. But you mentioned the drought monitor. This week, we'll get the update from the rain we got last week after the deadline.

And with the rain we get over the weekend, next week's drought monitor could look really good. So I think we might nip away at some of that drought area across central and northern Minnesota in the next week here.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, gosh, great news. So in addition to appreciating sultry weather, as you know, I also like a-- I appreciate decent-sized thunderstorms sometimes. And I'm wondering, with the warmer air coming in, any severe chances next week?

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, and next week does look like the week we're going to take two steps forward into spring. We start in the 50s on Monday, 60s Tuesday. It looks like lots of 70s, Cathy, Wednesday, Thursday, and then maybe again that first weekend of May. And that's when the dew points on some of the forecast models get up into the 60s. So a little bit stickier, and yes, a chance of thunderstorms.

Now, it's still a long way out, but the early models are saying maybe focused over the Dakotas that weekend, that first weekend in May, and then kind of easing into Minnesota. So we'll have to watch it. It's that time of year. Once you get dew points into the 60s, any little trigger that comes along can spark some thunderstorms. And as we know, they can be severe this time of year.

CATHY WURZER: Yes, that is true. So how about Climate Cast? I hear you have a very special guest.

PAUL HUTTNER: I do. Bill Weir is the CNN chief climate correspondent. And Bill and I used to work together way back in the day in Chicago. And he's got a new book out, Life as We Know It Can Be. It's stories of the people that he's met on his travels around the world on climate change, what he's learned about it. He even wrote a future letter to his son that he's going to let his son read in 2050.

So he's an interesting guy. He's seen a lot of the world. He's done a lot of work on climate. And we're going to talk to him today, and you'll hear that on Climate Cast tomorrow.

CATHY WURZER: All right. That sounds great. Thank you so much. Have a good day.

PAUL HUTTNER: Appreciate it. You, too. Thanks, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: We've been talking to MPR's chief meteorologist Paul Huttner. You can catch him later on All Things Considered with Tom Crann. And of course, you can find weather maps and details and other information weather-related on the Updraft blog at mprnews.org.