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Showers at times Friday; Halloween update

There aren't any big temperature swings in our weekend forecast, and I don't see any all-day rains either.

Let's talk about rain first.

Rain chances

Here's how our rain chances are stacking up:

  • Most of Minnesota will have rain showers at times this Friday and Friday night. Parts of southwestern Minnesota might miss out on this first batch of rain.

  • The best chance of scattered showers during the daylight hours of Saturday will be in the northern half of Minnesota. Periods of rain are expected over most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin Saturday night.

  • On Sunday, eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin could see some scattered morning showers.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential rain pattern from Friday afternoon through Sunday morning:

rt1026rad
NOAA NAM simulated radar from Friday afternoon through Sunday morning, via tropicaltidbits

It'll probably rain in some spots that look dry in the NAM radar loop, but the loop illustrates the general rain pattern.

The color chart to the right of the loop refers to the strength of the signal that returns to the radar, not to the amount of rain.

Updated weather information can be heard on the Minnesota Public Radio Network, and you can see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.

Temperature trends

Friday afternoon highs are expected to be in the 40s in most of northern and central Minnesota, with some 50s in the Twin Cities metro area and southern Minnesota.  A few spots in far southwestern Minnesota could reach 60 degrees.

Our average high temp this time of year is 53 degrees in the Twin Cities metro area.

On Saturday, highs in the 40s are expected in roughly the northern half of Minnesota, with mostly 50s in the southern half:

rt1027h2

A similar high temperature pattern is on tap for Sunday:

rt1028h2

Twin Cities metro are highs are projected to reach the lower 50s Monday and Tuesday, followed by upper 40s Wednesday through Friday.

Two weeks out

The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center outlook for Nov. 2 through Nov. 8 shows a tendency for near-normal temps over Minnesota:

rt1028out
NWS Climate Prediction Center

Our average Twin Cities high temperature dips to 46 degrees by Nov. 8.

Halloween weather

Halloween looks dry this year across Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

According to the Minnesota State Climatology Office, the Twin Cities metro area has seen rain on Halloween in 26 percent of the years dating back to 1872. Here's their summary of Halloween temperatures:

 High temperatures in the Twin Cities are generally in the 40s and 50s. It is more common for the daily high on Halloween to be in the 60s than in the 30s. 70s tend to be rare, with only eight Halloween high temperatures being 70 degrees or above or about one in eighteen years.

The warmest Halloween on record was 83 degrees in 1950, with one of the coldest one year later with a high of 30 in 1951. The coldest Halloween maximum temperature was a bone-chilling 26 degrees back in 1873.

Metro area ghosts and goblins will have temps in the 40s as they gather candy this Halloween.

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:49 a.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.