Wind, record warmth Wednesday; weekend rain track shifts

Wednesday will be the peak of our warmth with highs well into the 70s across central and southern Minnesota. Gusty winds will blow from the south at 15-25 mph with gusts of 30-40 mph. Rain is possible Thursday night into the weekend but the heaviest area is shifting.

Windy, record-breaking warmth Wednesday

Record high temperatures will be broken Wednesday for many locations. In the Twin Cities our record high Wednesday is 72 set back in 1978. We should pass that easily. 

Winds will really blow from the south at 15-25 mph, gusting to 30-40 mph Wednesday, creating potential fire danger also with low relative humidity in the afternoon between 30 percent and 40 percent.

Wednesday night will see a record warm night also. Lows will be in the 50s to even near 60 degrees in the Twin Cities. The record warm low for Nov. 2 is 55 degrees set in 1956.

Rain Thursday night but heaviest area shifts

We’ll see some scattered showers Thursday night as a cold front slides across Minnesota and then a more significant upper-level low and plume of moisture moves north from the southern plains Friday night into Saturday night.

The models and the heavier rainfall totals have been trending more southeast with time.

Here’s a look at total forecast precipitation from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center in the upper left and then the three major models’ ensemble runs, which are variations of the model averaged together for a more stable forecast.