Poor air quality Wednesday; strong storms possible

Updated 10:24 a.m.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will be possible Wednesday along with the potential for severe weather later in the day, especially east. Smoke will continue to keep air quality reduced.

Storms possible Wednesday; poor air quality

Scattered showers will continue across portions of central and northern Minnesota through Wednesday morning while southern Minnesota sees some hazy sunshine.

Storms will redevelop in southeastern Minnesota and push into western Wisconsin in the late afternoon or evening hours Wednesday.

Storms that develop in the late afternoon and evening hours could become strong to severe with primary threats being large hail and some damaging wind gusts. There’s a slight risk (level 2 of 5) of severe storms forecast for far eastern Minnesota into western Wisconsin.

We’ve had a lack of severe weather this season. While we saw some weather Saturday and may again late Wednesday, overall severe weather warnings are at their lowest for this point in the season since 1995.

Dew points will be muggy through the day Wednesday helping add fuel to any storm development.

Afternoon high temperatures Wednesday should reach the low to mid-80s in southern Minnesota but will only be around 70 in northeastern Minnesota.

Air quality will remain an issue as smoke lingers in eastern and southern Minnesota. An air quality alert continues essentially through midnight Wednesday (the graphic is confusing about the time).

The smoke is circulating back in from the south after moving away from portions of Minnesota late Tuesday. The reason is that an area of high pressure with clockwise circulating air continues to move east.

This initially pulled in the smoke from the northeast then pushed it away to the southwest and now is bringing it back from the south. The worst air is over southern Wisconsin and Illinois.

Thunderstorm chance Thursday, then quieter

We’ll still have some at least isolated thunderstorms possible Thursday and even Friday in northern Minnesota.

Dew points will finally drop some by late Friday into the more comfortable 50s.

We dry out for the weekend overall but things will be heating up. Highs will be in the upper 80s to near 90 by Sunday and into the 90s early next week again across southern and western Minnesota.