Roller coaster temperatures continue into next week

Cooler, near-normal temperatures are in place Wednesday, but Thursday will be milder before cooling off for Friday. Thursday also brings a decent chance at light rain showers later in the day.

Chilly but near-normal temps Wednesday 

It’s significantly cooler across the region Wednesday, but these readings are actually closer to normal after near-record warmth the last few days. Highs will be in the 50s for southern Minnesota and just in the 40s north.

Clouds should decrease but northern Minnesota will see more cloud cover than southern Minnesota.

It’ll be a frosty night Wednesday for parts of northeastern and southeastern Minnesota and into western Wisconsin. The Twin Cities and western Minnesota will likely see overnight lows remain in the low 40s.

It’ll already be milder Thursday with highs returning to the 60s. That’s back above normal for southern Minnesota, but another cold front will already be on our doorstep later in the afternoon.

That next cold front will touch off a decent chance of rain showers and possibly even a little thunder for central and southern Minnesota Thursday afternoon into the evening.

While the rainfall will hardly be a drought buster, it will be our first measurable rainfall in 5 weeks in the Twin Cities officially. We could see up to one-quarter inch of rainfall.

Behind the front, temperatures will drop again to near-normal levels, in the 50s south and 40s north for Friday and Saturday — including seasonably chilly overnights.

We will warm back into the 70s early next week with a potentially more active pattern developing later next week. 

Both the six to 10-day and eight to 14-day precipitation outlooks call for better odds than not of above-normal precipitation. We desperately need some significant rain before the ground freezes.