Fire danger with dry, gusty winds Tuesday; much warmer days ahead

Critical fire weather conditions are possible Tuesday afternoon as humidity drops and winds continue to be high. Temperatures will range from near 60 south to the 40s near the North Shore. Temperatures will be even warmer in the days ahead.

Fire danger warnings, still cool Tuesday

Red flag warnings cover much of Minnesota Tuesday afternoon into the evening as weather variables lead to potential critical fire weather conditions.

We’ll have high wind gusts again statewide from the northwest at 30-40 mph.

Relative humidity values will drop to about 15 to 25 percent by the afternoon as temps warm into the 50s to near 60 degrees combined with low dew points and sunshine.

All of these variables together will lead to potentially extreme fire weather risk Tuesday afternoon.

High temperatures will range from around 60 south to the 40s along the North Shore.

‘Omega’ block pattern bringing warmth

We have an “omega block” pattern developing in the mid and upper levels of the atmosphere.

We call it this because the shape of upper-level winds around two upper level lows and a high pressure ridge in between looks like the Greek letter omega.

This pattern will continue to dominate our weather into early next week. The two upper-level lows on each coast are areas of cold, stormy weather that pump warmer, drier air northward in between them.

High temperatures Wednesday will finally be near normal, mainly in the 60s but lots of low 70s in western Minnesota will be reached.

By Thursday we should see more widespread 70s. The North Shore will continue to be cooler with southeast winds off Lake Superior.

Spotty rain chances ahead

With a big upper-level ridge in place, major storm systems will be kept out of our way but we will see some spotty shower chances starting Wednesday night for northern Minnesota and occasionally across southern Minnesota Friday and Saturday.

These showers will be pretty hit and miss.