Labor Day is looking good; warmer temps this week
Northern Lights may be visible Sunday night
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We’ve had pleasant weather so far this weekend, and no big temperature changes are expected on Labor Day.
We could have a brilliant sunset today:
A high pressure system extends from near James Bay in Canada back through Wisconsin and Minnesota. The high pressure system will drift southeastward on Labor Day, and our winds will shift to the southeast. As a result, dew points will rise a bit on Monday. Some spots could see patchy early morning fog.
No rain in sight
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We’ll stay rain-free through Labor Day. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model isn’t depicting any rain in Minnesota or western Wisconsin from Sunday evening through Monday evening:
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.
Northern lights again?
Many people saw the Northern Lights Saturday night, and there’s a chance for a repeat performance Sunday night or very early Monday.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a geomagnetic storm watch for Sunday night into early Monday:
That means that conditions could be favorable for Aurora (Northern Lights in our hemisphere) across northern portions of the U.S. overnight Sunday night into the early hours of Monday. Northern Lights could be visible as far south as the yellow line, with a better chance of seeing them from the green line northward through northern Minnesota.
At any time overnight you can get a very short-term depiction of where the Northern Lights may be visible. Be aware that Universal time is used on the Space Weather Prediction Center site. You subtract five hours from UTC to get CDT; for instance 0600 UTC is 1 a.m. CDT.
Temperature trends
Sunday’s high at MSP airport was 75 degrees, which is two degrees shy of our average Sept. 4 Twin Cities high. Metro area high temps are forecast to reach the mid to upper 70s on Labor Day, and we’ll see 70s across most of Minnesota plus western Wisconsin:
A few locations in far western Minnesota could touch 80 degrees. Some spots up along the North Shore of Lake Superior could have Monday high temps in the upper 60s.
Dew points will rise into the upper 50s in much of central and southern Minnesota Monday afternoon:
Back to high temps, Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the lower 80s on Tuesday, followed by upper 80s Wednesday and Thursday then mid 80s on Friday.
We’ll probably see metro area highs in the 70s next Saturday and Sunday, then above-normal temperatures could return the following week. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows a tendency for above-normal temps in Minnesota and Wisconsin for the period from September 12 through September 18:
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.