Extreme rainfall gives way to drier skies tomorrow

Hopefully your sump pump is earning its keep today.

Torrential rains fell by the inch as expected this morning as a slow moving cold front stalled near the metro. The heavy rain bull's-eye set up in the southeast metro from near Cottage Grove to River Falls, Wis., where 6.08 inches fell this morning.

• 1 SSW River Falls [Pierce Co, WI] COCORAHS reports HEAVY RAIN of 6.08 INCH at 5:52 AM CDT --

The Kinnickinnic River in western Wisconsin spiked 5 feet this morning.

The storm total rainfall mode of the Twin Cities Doppler radar shows a swath of 2 inches to 3 inches across the metro. The 4-6 inch red zone is visible in the southeast metro.

Woodbury in the east metro picked up over 4 inches this morning.

Here are more impressive rainfall totals from Twin Cities National Weather Service.

Here's a wider look at rainfall distribution from this morning and a look at a drier forecast ahead.

Air mass transfusion

After the perfect Fourth of July weather, the Twin Cities topped out at 88 degrees Sunday. You probably noticed the dew point creeping up through the 60s Sunday. We topped out at a tropical 70 degrees early Monday morning.

Once the rain is done this afternoon, a fresh northwest breeze builds behind our inbound cold front. A fresh blue Canadian high pressure cell dives south into Minnesota Tuesday pushing heavy rains into the Ohio Valley.

Your basement gets a chance to dry out over the next 72 hours. You'll notice the dew points plunging tomorrow to October levels in the 40s. We inhale less than half as much moisture in our air mass Tuesday than we did this morning.

Enjoy the drier and sunnier air mass starting tomorrow.