Elevated fire danger for northern Minnesota, rising rivers south
Warm, dry start to the week with showers possible late week
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After a soggy weekend, rivers are rising again south. Northern Minnesota will see an elevated fire risk Monday with warm, dry, breezy conditions. Highs will be well into the 70s with sunshine through Wednesday.
Floods and fire risk
A large swath of southern Minnesota saw 5 to 8 inches of rain over the last several days.
Much of this rain fell in the Minnesota River watershed. In southwestern Minnesota, the Cottonwood River at New Ulm is up 11 feet from several days ago.
This water will make its way through the Minnesota River pushing it up 7 more feet at Jordan.
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That water will make it into the Mississippi. By Sunday, the Mississippi at St. Paul will go up another 6 feet, back into moderate flood stage.
In northern Minnesota it’s the opposite problem. There’s a fire weather watch for much of northern Minnesota Monday afternoon.
While winds will be light south, winds will be higher at 10-20 mph in northern Minnesota.
Relative humidity values will drop into just the teens by afternoon in northern Minnesota as well.
Warm and sunny until late Wednesday
There was dense fog in many of the river valleys early Monday and over saturated ground in southern Minnesota. That fog was especially visible in the Mississippi River valleys.
We’ll have sunshine around through Wednesday along with dry weather. Highs Monday will be well into the 70s for most of Minnesota expect far southern Minnesota where clouds will linger for part of the day.
Temperatures will be even warmer Tuesday with many places near 80 in southern Minnesota.
A clipper system and cold front will bring more clouds and some scattered showers, thunder Wednesday night into Thursday and early Friday. Rainfall amounts look relatively light, however, which is good news for soaked soils in southern Minnesota.
It will be cooler briefly on Friday, in the 60s statewide. After that, we’re going to time out a beautiful weekend for a change. There’s been at least a trace of precipitation every weekend since late March in the Twin Cities.
This weekend looks sunny statewide and warm with highs in the 70s.