Spotty shower chances linger into Wednesday; warmer, drier weather ahead
Heat builds in for the weekend
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We still have some lingering isolated to spotty shower chances Tuesday and Wednesday. The remainder of the week will be mainly dry with hotter conditions by the weekend.
Spotty showers through Wednesday then drier, hotter
Like the last couple of days, we’ll continue to see some isolated to spotty showers and a couple thunderstorms both Tuesday and Wednesday, mostly driven by daytime heating due to cold air aloft.
As the upper-level ridge to the west builds east, Minnesota will be on the northern and eastern edge. “Ridge-riders” — small upper level disturbances running along the edge of the ridge — will touch off spotty thunder chances here and there.
The first of these comes through early Wednesday but a couple more could move through over the weekend. On the loop below, these disturbances are orange-red blobs and swirls.
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High temperatures Tuesday will be in the low to mid-80s with partly cloudy skies and just a couple showers to dodge.
Overnight, temps will dip into the 50s north and 60s south under partly cloudy skies with some Tuesday late-night and early morning showers possible Wednesday.
The pattern should stabilize more, yielding sunny skies for Thursday and most of Friday. Temperatures will see a significant warming trend with highs near or above 90 by the weekend.
With dew points approaching 70 degrees or higher, especially Sunday, the heat index will get quite steamy. The heat index could reach triple digits in southwestern Minnesota Sunday afternoon.
The forecast models are mixed on chances of spotty thunder over the weekend (due to those ridge-rider disturbances), namely Friday night into early Saturday potentially. We should have more clarity as we get closer on timing and chances.
Moderate air quality for some
Moderate air quality is forecast for Tuesday, including the Twin Cities and for the northern half of Minnesota the next few days.
Most of the smoke is elevated above the ground, creating hazy skies. The culprit is smoke from widespread scattered fires from Manitoba, west through British Columbia.
