Some fog early Monday, then skies brighten; River levels reaching flood stage again
Late-week rain chances
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
It was great to see the skies brighten in the Twin Cities metro area Sunday afternoon. Northern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin had a lot of sunshine all day.
Heavy rain recap
Parts of southern Minnesota saw heavy rain Wednesday night into Thursday, followed by additional periods of heavy rain Saturday and Saturday night.
St. Peter, Minn., tallied 4.43 inches of rain from Saturday through 7 a.m. Sunday, with a bit more on top of that into Sunday afternoon.
There are several locations in southern Minnesota with 2 to 4-inch weekend rainfall totals:
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
Weekend rainfall plus the rain from Wednesday night and Thursday put some areas over 6 inches:
You can read about the flooding caused by recent heavy rains here.
You can find updated flood warning information at the following National Weather Service sites: Twin Cities, Duluth, La Crosse, Wis., Sioux Falls, S.D., Grand Forks, N.D.
Rivers are rising again
Some rivers have been rising rapidly or are forecast to rise substantially in the coming days. You can check the river levels at various locations in Minnesota and western Wisconsin here. This is how the linked map looked Sunday afternoon:
You can zoom in on the linked map page and get detailed info on river levels at a specific location.
River levels are measured in relation to the height above a local benchmark. In some locations, river levels are listed in feet above sea level.
Here’s the hydrograph of recent, current and forecast levels for the Cottonwood River at New Ulm, which is expected to reach major flood stage this Sunday night:
The Minnesota River at Jordan is forecast to rise more than nine feet between now and next Saturday, reaching moderate flood stage on Wednesday.
The Mississippi River at St. Paul is forecast to rise more than six feet between now and next Sunday, reaching moderate flood stage on Saturday.
Dry start to the week
A nearby high pressure system will lighten up the winds, allowing areas of fog to develop in central and southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin late Sunday night. Areas of fog will linger into early Monday morning.
Generally rain-free weather is expected in Minnesota and western Wisconsin Monday and Tuesday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential rain pattern from 9 a.m. Monday to 7 p.m. Tuesday:
Rain chances return to Minnesota and western Wisconsin Wednesday night into Thursday, but next Saturday is looking fairly dry.
You can find updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the MPR News network.
Temperature trends
The average Twin Cities high temperature is 69 degrees on May 15. Monday highs are expected to reach the mid 70s in the metro area.
Most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin will have Monday highs in the 70s, with lower 80s in parts of northwestern and north-central Minnesota:
Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the upper 70s to around 80 on Tuesday, followed by mid-70s Wednesday then lower 70s Thursday and upper 60s on Friday.
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. each Saturday and Sunday.