Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Weekend thunderstorm chances, but many rain-free hours too

Quiet weather next week

Parts of southern and central Minnesota and western Wisconsin will see a few scattered showers and thunderstorms into Saturday afternoon. There’ll be rain-free periods at all locations too.

Forecast models show a more organized area of showers and thunderstorms developing in far southern Minnesota and parts of western Wisconsin late Saturday afternoon and expanding to cover much of the southeastern half of Minnesota and also western Wisconsin Saturday evening. Those same areas will have a good chance of periodic showers and t-storms Saturday evening and overnight.

Severe weather outlook

The NWS Storm Prediction Center shows a slight risk of severe weather (shaded yellow) Saturday afternoon through Saturday night from southeastern Minnesota into western Wisconsin:

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Severe weather outlook Saturday afternoon/evening and overnight
NWS Storm Prediction Center

The southeastern portion of the Twin Cities metro area is included in the slight risk of severe weather, mainly this evening and overnight.

Slight risk means that scattered severe thunderstorms are possible:

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Severe weather risk categories
NWS Storm Prediction Center

An isolated severe thunderstorm is possible in the dark-green shaded areas on the map.

Track weekend showers and thunderstorms on the new interactive radar on the MPR weather page. You can pan and zoom the radar display on our site to see precipitation at your location, across all of Minnesota and western Wisconsin and beyond.

We have updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the Minnesota Public Radio News network, and on the MPR News live weather blog.

Sunday thunder chances

A few spotty showers/t-storms are possible Sunday morning and early afternoon, then a more organized area of showers and thunderstorms is expected to develop in western Minnesota by late Sunday afternoon and move eastward Sunday evening and night. We could see some strong t-storms in parts of western Minnesota late tomorrow afternoon and in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin Sunday evening.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential rain pattern from 7 a.m. Sunday to 11 p.m. Sunday:

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Simulated radar from 7 a.m. Sunday to 11 p.m. Sunday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

Temperature trends

Saturday highs will be in the 80s across much of southern and central Minnesota plus parts of the northwest. There will be some 70s in northeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Dew points will be in the sticky 60s today and tomorrow.

Sunday highs reach the 80s in most areas:

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Sunday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the lower 80s on Monday, then around 80 Tuesday followed by upper 70s Wednesday and mid 70s Thursday and Friday.

We could see above-normal temps next weekend into the following week. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows a tendency for above-normal temps in Minnesota and Wisconsin from September 3 through September 9:

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Temperature outlook September 3 through September 9
NWS Climate Prediction Center

Weather nugget

The record Twin Cities high temperature for today is 99 degrees, set in 1926. The coldest August 27 high temp in Twin Cities weather records is 60 degrees, set in 1914.

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. Saturday and Sunday.