Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

October weather whiplash: Cold front drops temperatures 30 degrees

A much cooler weather pattern ahead most of this week.

Temperatures Tuesday afternoon
Temperatures Tuesday afternoon
Oklahoma Mesonet

Welcome to Minnesota. Here our weather lunges from July heat to an October chill in 24 hours. You can see frigid blue colors shoving the balmy warm colors south of the national temperature map at the top of this post.

The Twin Cities hit a near-record high of 85 degrees Monday. Then a summery night yielded a record warm overnight minimum temperature of 64 degrees in the Twin Cities early Tuesday morning.

Now cue the cold front.

A sharp cold front has dropped temperatures more than 30 degrees across northern Minnesota Tuesday.

Case in point. Roseau hit a balmy 75 degrees Monday afternoon. The temperature there as of this post late Tuesday is 43 degrees. That’s 32 degrees colder in 24 hours.

October is running 6 degrees warmer than normal so far in the Twin Cities. Our transition of air masses brings much more seasonable temperatures to Minnesota for the rest of this week.

Twin Cities area forecast at a glance
Twin Cities area forecast at a glance.
Twin Cities National Weather Service

The normal high and low temperatures for Wednesday in the Twin Cities are 54 and 38 degrees!

Wednesday morning brings a sharply cooler feel to Minnesota.

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

Highs Wednesday afternoon under fading October sunshine hover in the 40s north and 50s elsewhere.

Forecast high temperatures Wednesday
Forecast high temperatures Wednesday
NOAA

Thursday showers

Northern and central Minnesota got a few showers Tuesday. The next passing low-pressure wave brings a better chance of showers to the rest of Minnesota Thursday afternoon.

Here’s the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s NAM 3 km model between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday:

NOAA FV3 model
North American Mesoscale 3 km model between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday
NOAA

A half inch of rain won’t dent Minnesota’s deepening drought, but it will settle some dust.

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