Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Windy Sunday; Tuesday rain chance, then rain likely Wednesday & Thursday

Sunday wind advisories and red flag warnings for large portions of Minnesota

Raking leaves will be an adventure Sunday afternoon, with wind gusts in the 40 to 45 mph range at times.

A strong low pressure system will move across south-central Canada this afternoon. It could bring scattered snow showers to parts of far northern Minnesota. It’ll also deliver gusty winds to Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota.

Here are forecast peak wind gusts for today:

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Forecast peak wind gusts Sunday
National Weather Service

A wind advisory covers northwestern, central and parts of southern Minnesota from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

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Wind advisory (beige) 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday
National Weather Service

The wind advisory was also extended eastward to cover counties from Brainerd east to the Wisconsin border Sunday.

A wind advisory runs from Sunday afternoon through Sunday night along and near the North Shore of Lake Superior.

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Wind advisory (beige) Sunday afternoon/night along the North Shore
National Weather Service

Gale warnings continue Sunday afternoon and through the overnight hours for Lake Superior.

Here are the forecast wind gusts and advisories for northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota:

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Wind advisory Sunday NW Minnesota, eastern North Dakota
National Weather Service

A few spots in northwestern Minnesota could see wind gusts over 50 mph at times.

Critical fire weather conditions Sunday afternoon

Due to the strong winds and the low relative humidity levels that are in our Sunday forecast, a red flag warning has been issued for Sunday afternoon across much of central and southern Minnesota.

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Red flag warning Sunday afternoon
National Weather Service

Outdoor burning is not recommended today, due to the potential rapid spread of any fires.

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.

Highs will be in the 40s across much of Minnesota Sunday afternoon. Far northwestern Minnesota will see some upper 30s and parts of far southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin will reach the lower 50s. Some spots in the Twin Cities metro area will top out in the lower 50s. Our average Nov. 6 high temp is 47 in the Twin Cities.

Monday highs will be in the 30s in northern Minnesota, with 40s elsewhere.

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Monday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Monday afternoon wind gusts will be fairly light in most areas, but over 25 mph in parts of far northeastern Minnesota.

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Monday noon forecast wind gusts
National Weather Service

Forecast wind gusts are in knots, with 10 knots equal to 11.5 mph.

Back to temperatures: Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the mid-50s on Tuesday, followed by mid-60s Wednesday and mid-50s on Thursday. Then it turns sharply colder, with a daytime high in the mid-30s on Friday.

Rain opportunities

Scattered showers may move into Minnesota as we go through Tuesday and into the evening. At this point, it looks like our Tuesday rain chance in the metro area will be mainly in the afternoon and evening.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 6 a.m. Tuesday to 9 p.m. Tuesday:

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Simulated radar from 6 a.m. Tuesday to 9 p.m. Tuesday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

Periods of rain are likely in much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin Wednesday and Thursday. Some areas may see some snow on Friday.

Duluth radar is out of service

The National Weather Service radar in Duluth is temporarily out of service. If your app shows a lot of precipitation near Duluth, it’s probably old radar info from around 5 a.m. Sunday. Here are more details of the Duluth weather radar outage:

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Duluth weather radar out of service
National Weather Service

Weather nugget

The Twin Cities high temperature was just 14 degrees on Nov. 6, 1991. The low temp was zero that day. Of course we had plenty of snow cover, in the aftermath of the Halloween blizzard that year.

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