A perfect summer day gives way to more humid Wednesday

Today's weather has been about as lovely as summertime gets. Temperatures are short-sleeve warm and the dew point has dropped into the comfy 40s and 50s.

A bit of a change is coming on Wednesday, however. A light wind from the south will push the temperature up a few more degrees into the low 80s for many of us, and some humidity will return.

A warm front approaching from the central Plains will couple with an upper level trough to fire up a scattering of showers and thunderstorms on Wednesday, but most of us should remain dry.

The strongest storms are likely to hold off until later in the day on Wednesday and form from South Dakota through Iowa and possibly catch the southwestern corner of Minnesota.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center's latest convective outlook has trimmed the area of slight risk for Minnesota tomorrow so that only the southwest corner is included.

The area of enhanced risk (a new category this year to indicate a risk greater than slight but less than moderate) has been shifted southward, away from the Minnesota-Iowa border.

On a non-meteorological note, a a series of coronal mass ejections from the sun struck Earth's magnetic field and created a rare and remarkable summertime display of northern lights last night.

They were quite bright not only in the northern states such as Minnesota and Wisconsin but also as far south as New Mexico, Arkansas and northern Georgia.

There is a good chance that the northern sky will light up again tonight after full dark. For best viewing, get away from city lights and give your eyes time to adjust to the dark sky. Many of the most vivid auroras seem to occur after midnight, but not always.