Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Some Canadian wildfire smoke lingers; scattered rain Wednesday

Air quality improves; haze remains in parts of Minnesota

Air Quality Index
Air quality index Tuesday afternoon
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

Our air quality across Minnesota has improved since Monday, but some smoky skies linger in part of our state Tuesday. You can see on the map above that moderate (yellow) air quality covers most of southern Minnesota as of Tuesday afternoon.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency air quality forecast for Wednesday shows good air quality across Minnesota.

Air quality forecast for Minnesota
Air quality forecast for Minnesota Wednesday
MPCA

Wednesday showers

A weak low-pressure system will slide across Minnesota Wednesday. Most of the showers overnight into early Wednesday will favor western Minnesota.

The best chance for scattered showed and a few thunderstorms in eastern Minnesota including the Twin Cities arrives Wednesday night.

Most of the rainfall on Wednesday looks light. The best chance for a soaking one-half to 1 inch of rain favors west-central through north-central Minnesota. Below is the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model rainfall output:

European model (ECMWF) precipitation output
Precipitation forecast through Wednesday
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, via Pivotal Weather

The next best chance for soaking rain arrives Saturday night, so gardeners may want to keep up on watering this week.

Highs this week will mostly be in the 70s south and 60s north.

Forecast high temperatures Wednesday
Forecast high temperatures Wednesday
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Saturday will be the warmest day with highs in the 80s south!

Forecast high temperatures Saturday
Forecast high temperatures Saturday
NOAA