Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Feels like fall this weekend; summery temps return by midweek

Rain chances linger into Saturday afternoon in southeastern Minnesota and SW Wisc.

It’ll feel autumn-like this weekend, and you probably won’t need to run your air conditioner.

It’s expected to be a rain-free Saturday afternoon and evening across much of Minnesota, but showers linger into Saturday afternoon in far southeastern Minnesota. Periods of rain will continue Saturday afternoon and into Saturday evening from southwestern Wisconsin into central Wisconsin.

Much of southern Wisconsin will have periods of rain today, tonight and Sunday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential rain pattern from 6 p.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday:

rt0909rad8
NAM simulated radar from 6 p.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

NOAA’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model shows a similar rain pattern this evening through Sunday afternoon:

rt0909rad9
HRRR simulated radar from 6 p.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

You can track 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 rain at your location, across all of Minnesota, 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.

Temperature trends

Saturday afternoon highs will be in the 60s in portions of far northern Minnesota, southeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, with mainly lower 70s elsewhere. Some spots in the metro area will reach the lower 70s. Our average Twin Cities high temp is 75 degrees this time of year.

Sunday highs reach 70 or the lower 70s across most of Minnesota, with 60s in the northeast:

rt0911h17b
Sunday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Our temperatures rebound nicely as we go through the week. Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the mid 70s on Monday and around 80 Tuesday, followed by lower 80s Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

We could see above-normal temps from next weekend into the following week. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows a tendency for above-normal temps in Minnesota and Wisconsin from Sept. 17 through Sept. 23:

rt0909ext
Temperature outlook Sept. 17 to Sept. 23
NWS Climate Prediction Center

Above-normal doesn’t necessarily mean hot weather in mid and late September; our average Twin Cities high temp on Sept. 18 is 72 degrees.

Weather nugget

The warmest Sept. 10 high temperature in Twin Cities weather records is 104 degrees, set in 1931. That’s the latest in the year that we’ve ever recorded a high temp over 100 degrees in the Twin Cities.

It was a hot five-day stretch back in September of 1931, with 90s for two days before and two days after the 104 degree high temp:

rt0910hot
Twin Cities high temps Sept. 8 through Sept. 12, 1931
NOAA data, via the Minnesota State Climatology Office

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.