Smoke layer aloft from western fires; spotty late-day T-Showers

You may notice a whitish tint to skies in the Land of Sky Blue Waters this weekend. That's sunlight refracting off an elevated smoke layer wisping across Minnesota from massive western fires.

The explosive pyrocumulus towers soared 30,000 feet into the air above the California fire zone Friday.

The upper winds are pushing that smoke into Minnesota. Here's a closer look at the smoke layer across the Upper Midwest this morning.

The smoke plume is so thick it's visible on Doppler radar in California.

Pretty nice weekend

In spite of the elevated smoke layer, it's a pretty nice summer weekend across Minnesota. Highs will be in the 70s to near 80 degrees both Saturday and Sunday.

Spotty late day T-Showers

Cloud towers will billow up in the heat of the afternoon. Spotty 10 to 20-percent coverage T-Showers will drift along late in the day. Your chances of getting wet are low, but if you get under one it could pour. The risk for severe weather is almost nil.

NOAA's HRRR model gives you the flavor of spotty later afternoon T-Shower coverage potential Saturday afternoon and evening.

Temperature speed bumps

We warm back into the 80s again early next week. Another cool front pushes south mid-week, but then summer-like weather returns.

The long-range models suggest we could see 90 degrees again as we move deeper into August. Summer is not done with us just yet.