Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

More rain on the way for SE Minnesota; cooler temps prevail

Highs will be in the 40s Friday and Saturday

radar est rain
Radar estimated rainfall from Thursday night
College of DuPage weather lab

Friday will be mainly dry, cool, cloudy. Temperatures will remain in the 40s with some upper 30s north. More showers develop for mainly southeast Minnesota Friday night into Saturday. Pockets of snow showers are possible as well Saturday. Sunshine returns Sunday.

Rainfall so far

Many saw rainfall overnight Thursday night. There were even a few thunderstorms that dumped narrow swaths of rainfall amounts over 1 inch. Most places saw much less.

mrms precip
24-hour precipitation analysis
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, via Pivotal Weather

We received one-quarter inch at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, our heaviest rainfall since late August and more rain than we saw in all of October!

Some rain for Twin Cities, SE Minnesota

We’ll be mainly dry during the day Friday with cloudy skies and much cooler weather. Southeastern Minnesota will still see on-and-off scattered rain showers.

fri highs 8a
Forecast high temperatures Friday
NOAA, via Pivotal Weather

The next round of moisture will come from the south and affect mostly the southeastern parts of Minnesota with the Twin Cities area and northeastern Minnesota on the western edge.

precip FRI 8a
Forecast precipitation late Friday into late Saturday
NOAA, via Pivotal Weather

The heaviest totals will be in eastern Iowa into far southeastern Minnesota and Wisconsin.

WPC QPF 48 hour
Forecast total precipitation through Saturday night
NOAA, via Pivotal Weather

It’s even possible to see some snow showers on the colder, western edge of the showers Saturday, especially in northeast Minnesota.

48 hour snowfall
Forecast snowfall Saturday into Saturday night
NOAA, via Pivotal Weather

Mild next week but also a stormier pattern

Sunshine will pop back out Sunday and Monday with highs back above normal Sunday in the 50s south and 40s north. Monday will be cooler with highs mainly in the 40s statewide. We could see 60s spread into southern Minnesota again by the middle of next week.

wed highs 8a
Forecast high temperatures next Wednesday
NOAA, via Pivotal Weather

Another interesting shift will be an overall stormier pattern next week. There could be a couple of different storm systems affecting Minnesota mid to late next week.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center is forecasting above normal precipitation for a change in their six to 10-day outlook:

6-10 day precip
Above-normal 6-10 day precipitation outlook for Minnesota
NOAA Climate Prediction Center

Analyzing our dry couple of years

The Twin Cities National Weather Service noted that while it’s indeed been a dry summer and fall in the Twin Cities, the overall dry pattern really began back in July of 2020.  

28 month precip trends
Monthly precipitation anomalies (difference from normal) for the Twin Cities for the past 28 months
National Weather Service

Twenty-three of the past 28 months have been drier than normal. A couple of periods stick out as wet: this spring (March and April) and last August after the June and July drought.