Steamy Tuesday, with some strong thunderstorms possible by evening

I'd say that our Monday weather was ideal.

There was plenty of sunshine, and temperatures and humidity levels were pleasant.

If you like your weather a bit steamier, you might like that part of the Tuesday forecast.

Tuesday warmup

Highs Tuesday will warm into the 90s in southwestern Minnesota, with 80s in most other parts of our favorite state:

Northeastern Minnesota will top out in the 70s.

It will be much muggier on Tuesday, with afternoon dew points rising into the upper 60s to lower 70s in central and southern Minnesota:

If it's too steamy for you on Tuesday, you'll be happy to see the cooler highs on tap for Wednesday:

Some spots in the Twin Cities will see lower 80s on Wednesday, and metro area highs are expected to be mostly in the lower 80s Thursday through Sunday.

Thunderstorm potential

Scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected to spread across parts of western Minnesota into eastern Minnesota overnight Monday night.

They could linger over eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin Tuesday morning.

Tuesday afternoon is expected to be rain-free over much of Minnesota, but far western Minnesota could see a late afternoon shower or thunderstorm.

There is a good chance that showers and thunderstorms will spread from western Minnesota eastward Tuesday evening.

Periods of showers and thunderstorms are expected over central and southern Minnesota, plus parts of northeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin Tuesday night and Wednesday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential rain pattern:

The color chart to the right of the loop refers to the strength of the signal that returns to the radar, not to the amount of rain.

Some areas could receive heavy rain Tuesday evening, overnight Tuesday night and early Wednesday, which could cause some flooding.

Severe weather outlook

The Storm Prediction Center of the National Weather Service shows a slight risk of severe weather over much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin Tuesday and Tuesday night:

Slight risk means that scattered severe thunderstorms are possible:

Twin Cities record rainfall anniversary

Thirty years ago, the Twin Cities metro area was recovering from the biggest rainfall in metro area weather records.

Between 6 p.m. CDT on July 23, 1987 and 2 a.m. CDT on July 24, 1987, 10 inches of rain fell at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

That's more than two months worth of rain in just a few hours!

According to the Minnesota State Climatology Office posting five years ago, most of the rain fell in a 5 hour period, resulting in two deaths and widespread flooding in much of the south and west metro.

Climate historian Tom St. Martin's synopsis of the storm states:

The heaviest rainfall ever officially recorded at a Twin Cities

weather station fell between about 1800 hours CDT on 23 July

and about 0200 hours CDT on 24 July 1987. During this eight

hour interval, observers at the Twin Cities International

airport station measured an even ten inches of rain (9.15

inches of which fell in a five hour period). And, although it

escaped the worst of the storm, most parts of St. Paul received

totals in the five to seven inch range, including 5.47 inches at

the St. Paul NWS cooperative station; 5.30 inches at the

North St. Paul NWS cooperative station; and 6.03 inches at

the compiler's St. Paul Battle Creek area station.

The Minnesota State Climatology office also has a detailed analysis of the July 23-24, 1987 heavy rainfall and flooding event, which illustrates the large area that received the torrential rains.