Potential strong storms Friday afternoon with more rain Sunday; extreme rainfall in Norway

Sunshine and steamy conditions Friday will lead to more storms developing in the afternoon and evening. Those storms could become severe. Saturday will be sunny with more rain Sunday.

Strong storms possible Friday afternoon, evening

We saw widespread rainfall late Thursday into early Friday with the bulk of it falling in west central Minnesota. There were also a few scattered reports of trees down north of Spicer, Mankato and near New Ulm.

Friday will be steamy across southern Minnesota with the combination of sun and another upper level disturbance creating more thunderstorms late in the afternoon and evening.

There’s a slight risk (level 2 out of 5) of severe storms with the primary threats being large hail and damaging wind gusts.

High temperatures will be in the mid 80s south to low 70s north.

More rain Sunday and cooler

Saturday will be mostly sunny with a drop in dew points making for a comfortable day.

The next system develops showers and thunderstorms from west to east Sunday into Sunday night with some lingering showers into Monday morning.

It’ll also be cooler Sunday and Monday with highs mainly in the 70s. Normal temperatures return Tuesday with low 80s south and upper 70s north.

Extreme rains in Norway

Norway has been in the news recently for extreme rainfall that caused severe flooding in the east central part of the country. These photos are from my third cousin’s wife in the town of Fåvang which is about 30 miles north of Lillehammer.

The unusually high amount of rainfall was the result of the convergence of two storm systems from the west and east over the country.

Norway has seen an 18 percent increase in precipitation annually overall over the past century with most of that increase in recent decades as a result of climate change. A warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor allowing storm systems to become “super charged.”