Warmest September on record continues through Sunday

Our balmy summerlike weather pattern will linger through the weekend ahead. That will lock in the warmest September on record for Minnesota.

Most of Minnesota is running between 5 and 8 degrees warmer than normal this month. And the Twin Cities has recorded 15 of 26 days with temperatures at or above 80 degrees this month!

Here’s a preview of September records from my colleague Mark Seeley’s Minnesota Weather Talk blog. You can hear more with Mark in the 6 a.m. hour Friday on MPR News Morning Edition with Cathy Wurzer.

This will be the first time in history that the statewide average September temperature will exceed 64°F, surpassing the previous warmest September of 2015 (63.8°F).  Most climate stations will report an average monthly temperature that is 5°F to 8°F above normal.  Counties of northwestern and north-central Minnesota were nearly 9°F warmer than normal.  Extremes were 92°F at Granite Falls (Yellow Medicine County) on the 16th and 26°F at Ely (St Louis County) on the 7th.  Within the state climate station network, there were 48 record daily high temperatures and 73 record daily warming minimum temperatures. 

Bluebird skies and temperatures 10 to 20 degrees warmer than normal continue through this weekend across Minnesota. We’ll approach but probably not break record highs this weekend in the Twin Cities which are in the upper 80s to low 90s.

But some records could fall up north. Keep in mind the normal high for the Twin Cities is now 69 degrees!

Highs in the 80s persist through Sunday into Monday.

But a cold front sweeping across Minnesota Monday will drop highs into the by Tuesday!

Forecast models suggest widespread frost north of the Twin Cities by next Friday morning.

The outlooks for October still favor warmer-than-normal temperatures, but it will finally feel more like fall around here in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned.