Pleasant Saturday; unsettled Sunday; warm front for Monday

Saturday got underway with a frosty start across northern Minnesota. Locations from Bemidji to Hibbing to Silver Bay reported temperatures down into the 20s.

Pleasant Saturday

The chilly start will give way to an enjoyable Saturday all across the state, certainly the best day of the weekend.

Eastern Minnesota will be mostly sunny while patchy clouds drift over some western and northern sections. High temperatures will range from the low 50s in the north to the low 60s across the south, The Twin Cities should have an afternoon high around 63 with a northeast breeze of only 5 to 15 mph.

Sunset in the Twin Cities will be at 6:59 p.m. Saturday evening. That will be our first sunset earlier than 7 p.m. this fall.

Developing storm system east of the Rocky Mountains

Our big weather story for the upcoming days will be a low pressure system that will deepen over Wyoming and Colorado and track toward Minnesota. It will treat us to showers and thunderstorms, heat and humidity, and then a blast of much cooler air to begin October on Tuesday.

Here is the outlook for the Twin Cities area for the next several days:

This storm system will push some showers and thunderstorms into southern Minnesota Saturday night. They are forecast to track northeast and are likely to reach the Twin Cities before sunrise on Sunday. These storms will not be severe.

Sunday storms

Sunday will be a breezy, fickle day with areas of showers and thunderstorms at times.

The deepening low pressure system will send more energy toward Minnesota later on Sunday. Strong and possibly severe thunderstorms are likely to build over southwestern Minnesota late on Sunday and then track toward eastern Minnesota Sunday night.

The area most likely to get severe weather will be southwestern Minnesota Sunday evening, shown as the yellow slight risk area below. The Twin Cities area and much of central and northern Minnesota are in a marginal risk for Sunday night.

Mid-summer Monday for southern and central Minnesota

The low pressure center will be closer to us on Monday. Its warm front will stretch eastward across the middle of the state as muggy July-like air pushes in from the south.

That warm front will divide very warm, very humid air across the southern half of Minnesota from much cooler, drier air in the north. High temperatures Monday afternoon should range from about the mid 50s in the northwest corner around Hallock to the low and mid 80s in central and southern sections. The Twin Cities are likely to have a high temperature in the low 80s with a tropical dew point into the low 70s.

Monday will be rainy at times. Strong thunderstorms with heavy rain are possible for Monday and Monday night.

There is also a marginal risk of severe weather for nearly all of Minnesota and western Wisconsin for Monday and Monday night.

Canadian cooldown

October will make a grand entrance on Tuesday as much cooler air blows in from Canada on northwest winds behind the exiting storm system. Forecast models keep the chillier air around for most of next week with a weak warmup possible around Saturday.