Weekend forecast: Cool temps; Sunday rain chances in southern Minnesota
Fall color update for leaf-peepers
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If you’re waiting for the return of milder temperatures, you’ll have to be patient. Temps will run a bit below normal this weekend.
Weekend temps and winds
Light winds overnight Friday night and early Saturday morning will allow temps to drop into the 20s in many areas, with some spots in southern Minnesota seeing lows in the lower 30s:
Minneapolis and St. Paul can expect Saturday morning lows in the lower 30s, with 20s in many metro area suburbs.
Keep in mind that official temperatures are measured 5 feet above the ground. When winds are very light, the temperature at ground level is often several degrees colder than the official temp.
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Saturday highs will be in the 40s in many areas, with lower 50s in southeastern Minnesota and parts of western Wisconsin:
Our average Oct. 23 high in the Twin Cities is 54 degrees, so the Saturday forecast high of 50 degrees is a few degrees below average.
Sunday highs will again feature a lot of 40s, with lower 50s in southeastern Minnesota and parts of western Wisconsin:
It’ll be breezy on Sunday, with gusts of 18-22 mph in many areas:
Plotted wind forecasts are in knots, with 18 knots equal to 20.7 mph.
Sunday rain chances
Southern portions of Minnesota and Wisconsin have the best chance of seeing some showers on Sunday. Parts of Iowa and northern Illinois will have soaking rains.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model model shows the potential rain pattern Sunday and Sunday evening:
There is one forecast model that shows the rain spreading into the southern half of the Twin Cities metro area on Sunday, but several forecast models keep the metro area dry.
You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the Minnesota Public Radio News network, and you can see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.
Fall colors
The latest fall color report from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources shows colors past peak in the dark-red shaded areas of Minnesota:
The percentage of changeover to fall colors is between 75 percent and 100 percent in the medium-red shaded areas, including much of the Twin Cities metro area and portions of southeastern Minnesota.
Keep in mind that all deciduous trees are included in the fall color report, not just maples.
Wisconsin fall color info can be found here.
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.