We truly are blessed to have blue skies and comfortable temperatures today as so many people hit the pavement and travel for the holiday weekend or stay home and venture outdoors to do some yard work or gardening.  This two day stretch has been a long time in coming, but unfortunately it looks to be coming to an end soon as clouds and rain are expected to move in by tonight.  A large, slow moving storm system from the west is going to spread a few showers into the area late this evening with more widespread showers later tonight and tomorrow morning.  Rain chances will continue to affect the area off and on through the holiday weekend, especially in the early portions of Saturday and Sunday and then through much of Monday while temperatures remain a bit on the cool side.  If you’re heading north for the holiday weekend, there is some slightly better news as rain will be a bit more sparse, especially for Saturday and Sunday. 

Posted under Holidays

Even though a few light showers and batches of sprinkles are moving in our direction today, it’s a fairly quiet and pleasant start to the holiday weekend we’re enjoying right now as filtered sunshine, light winds, and comfortable temperatures appear to the rule across the area.  Look for highs in the mid 70s in most spots and just a trace amount of rainfall from these light showers, especially for the late afternoon and evening hours.  As a warm front from the south pushes into the local area tonight and tomorrow, we’ll find ourselves dealing with off and on scattered showers and a few thunderstorms, but nothing too intense and not a total washout of the first part of the holiday weekend by any stretch of the imagination.  Behind that warm front Sunday we’ll have bright sunshine, gusty south winds, and more humidity in the air as high temperatures will be in the lower 90s in the afternoon and heat indices will be in the mid 90s.  A cold front will bring us perhaps the most intense and heaviest round of thunderstorms late Sunday night and early Monday and then behind that, we’ll have just a few isolated afternoon showers and thunderstorms along with some sunshine and highs in the upper 70s.

If you’re heading up north, it’ll be a different story, especially as far as the temperatures go for the holiday weekend as highs will mainly be in the 50s and 60s.  Here’s a look at the northern Minnesota “cabin forecast” for those traveling up there this weekend:

A cool and slightly unsettled forecast is ahead for the holiday weekend in northern Minnesota. Don't forget your rain jacket and maybe a sweater!

Posted under Holidays

While we’ve enjoyed some pleasant, sun filled weather over the past couple of afternoons, we still could use a little more rain for our lawns, fields, and gardens to keep things green and from the looks of our current forecast for the next few days, there will be at least a couple of opportunities to get some rain in the area.  The storm system that is responsible for producing our gusty winds today will eventually spread some showers and thunderstorms across the area tomorrow, tomorrow night, and Thursday.  Right now, it looks like there will be enough moisture available and energy in that storm system to squeeze out half an inch or more of rainfall locally between Wednesday and Thursday which would be a nice start.  There will be a chance for a few isolated or hit-and-miss thunderstorms in the area tomorrow, especially in the afternoon and evening with more widespread showers and thunderstorms tomorrow night into early Thursday.  There may be a couple of round of thunderstorms Thursday as the cold front with that approaching storm system slowly pushes through the area.  There appears to be a chance for some strong or severe storms later tomorrow, mainly to our west with a better chance of large hail and some strong winds in those storms across the heart of our local area Thursday as things will be just a little more unstable.  We’ll have get a break from the shower and thunderstorm activity Friday with sunshine and 70s expected before another storm system moves in for the weekend.  Right now, we’ll have to keep an eye on Saturday and then late Sunday night into Monday morning or midday as the best chance for showers and possibly severe thunderstorms.

The severe weather threat tomorrow appears to be later in the day and primarily to our west, but a better chance for strong storms appears to move in for Thursday. Large hail and strong winds will be possible in those severe storms Thursday.

Posted under Holidays, severe weather