Gorgeous weather ahead, but little rain for the next week

August weather doesn’t get much better than this.

But our beautiful weather pattern into the weekend comes with a price. Deepening drought.

Thursday’s U.S. Drought Monitor report for Minnesota is likely to show deepening drought, especially in the northern half of Minnesota.

Here’s another look at last week’s drought monitor as a preview of Thursday’s release. 35 percent of Minnesota is in extreme drought as of last week.

Air mass transfusion

Minnsota’s air mass has transformed dramatically since early Tuesday. Dew points that were in the swampy 70s are now in the blissfully Medeteranian 40s and 50s. See how the deep tropical moisture has been pushed into Wisconsin and Iowa on Wednesday’s dew point map?

Temperatures will be very pleasant into the weekend.

Overnight lows will feel pleasantly cool with 40s north and 50s south.

Highs in the 70s and lower 80s cover most of Minnesota into the weekend.

Humidity will increase in southern Minnesota Saturday. Next week looks warmer and more humid with 90s possible again.

Still searching for rain

Our blissful weather pattern comes with a nagging need for more rain. A few showers will cross parts of northern and central Minnesota again overnight into early Thursday morning.

But significant rainfall looks scarce through next Tuesday. Here’s the European model precipitation output through next Tuesday.

So while I’ll be enjoying our fine weather in the next few days, I’ll also be scanning the weather maps for a wetter pattern change to ease the drought as we move into September and the fall.