Rain wraps up Wednesday evening; brighter Thursday

The last rain showers are moving out Wednesday evening. Snow continues into northeastern Minnesota through the late evening. Skies will clear overnight.

The sun returns Thursday

Wednesday’s rainfall has topped out at 0.60 inches so far officially for the Twin Cities. That puts our April precipitation at 2.46 inches (compared to an average to date of 1.75) which is more than 41 percent of normal. Spring to date (March 1: meteorological spring) precipitation is up to 5.41 inches, more than one and a half times the normal precipitation to date for spring.

Of course in northern Minnesota the precipitation has been rain and snowfall. Bemidji picked up 5 inches of snow, International Falls 2.7 inches. The snow was still falling in northeast Minnesota and the north shore where we’ll await final totals.

Most of the rain will continue to wrap up through the evening though snow will linger into the overnight in the arrowhead and north shore.

Cloud cover will also clear out through the night giving way to abundant sunshine for the southern half of Minnesota. Northern Minnesota will have more clouds around Thursday.

We should see highs well into the 50s across southern Minnesota, 40s north.

Unsettled and warmer into the weekend

We continue to warm into the first half of the weekend but we also see more moisture and unsettled weather develop. The combination of warmth, higher dew points and shear will lead to some energy potential for strong storms late Friday in Nebraska and the plains.

What’s left of those storms could drift into Minnesota late Friday and into the overnight. High temperatures Saturday will be well into the 70s, our first of the season, coming about two weeks later than normal.

A chance of some storms is possible late Saturday also as a cold front sweeps in dropping temperatures back into the 40s and 50s Sunday. The risk of severe weather looks to stay mainly south of Minnesota Saturday also.