A summery Saturday; thunder chances northern Minnesota

Our average Twin Cities high temperature on May 22 is 71 degrees. We’ll be way above average this Saturday, with most of the metro area topping out in the mid to upper 80s. Highs in the 80s are expected Saturday afternoon across much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin:

There’ll be some 70s near Lake Superior, and a mix of 50s, 60s and 70s in northwestern Minnesota.

Sticky dew points in the 60s are expected in most areas:

Northwestern Minnesota will have lower dew points.

Rain and thunder chances?

Northwestern Minnesota has the best chance of showers and thunderstorms Saturday morning. West-central Minnesota and the northern third of Minnesota could see scattered showers and thunderstorms at times Saturday afternoon and evening.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential rain pattern for Saturday and Saturday evening:

It’ll rain in some spots that look dry in the loop, but the loop illustrates the general rain pattern that’s expected.

The NWS Storm Prediction Center shows a marginal risk (shaded dark green) of severe weather in west-central Minnesota and portions of northern Minnesota Saturday and Saturday night:

Marginal risk means that an isolated severe thunderstorm is possible.

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the Minnesota Public Radio network, and you can see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.

This Updraft blog will be updated around 10:20 a.m. with a look at Sunday and the week ahead.

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on MPR News at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:39 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.