Hot start to August; thunderstorms for the northern half of Minnesota

Temperatures will be heating up through the 80s Tuesday and 90s Wednesday across southern and western Minnesota. Strong storms are possible in northern Minnesota.

Warmer Tuesday; strong storms possible north

Temperatures will be heating up a bit more Tuesday with some places warming into the low 90s in the Red River Valley. Most of southern Minnesota will see upper 80s with cooler readings in northeastern Minnesota.

We already have some thunderstorms in northwestern Minnesota Tuesday morning and more will develop in the afternoon and evening. Most of that activity will remain in the northern half of the state.

There’s a slight risk of severe storms (level 2 of 5) for northwestern Minnesota and a marginal risk (level 1 of 5) across much of the northern half of the state. The main threats would be some damaging wind gusts and large hail.

Smoke also continues to linger across northern Minnesota reducing air quality some.

An air quality alert remains in place through 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon north.

Hotter Wednesday and Thursday

Dew points will start to increase Tuesday with mid to upper 60s pushing into western Minnesota and low 60s in the Twin Cities by late in the day Tuesday.

It’ll be even hotter Wednesday and Thursday with highs in the low 90s across a good chunk of central and southern Minnesota.

More storms will be possible across the northern half of Minnesota on Wednesday as well.

Rain potential over the weekend?  

Some models are giving us a decent rainfall late Saturday into Sunday. There’s still a range of tracks and possibilities with that system. Here are three different model scenarios for weekend total rainfall:

Next week then looks to bring normal or cooler than normal temperatures.