Showers south with some peeks of sun Thursday. Cold Friday and Saturday
Very windy conditions persist through Saturday
Updated 9 a.m.
Scattered showers will fall mainly in southern Minnesota Thursday morning. Many will see at least peeks of sun. Winds increase once again and remain blustery through Saturday.
Showers south Thursday; more wind through Saturday
More rain is falling across portions of southern Minnesota Thursday. Rainfall will be lighter than Tuesday’s downpours and will wrap up by late morning and afternoon. Northern Minnesota will see afternoon flurries.
Snow showers will reignite in northern Minnesota Friday.
Some slushy accumulation is possible up north into Friday night.
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The wind increases yet again by the afternoon at 15-30 mph from the west. The gusty winds will persist into Friday and Saturday.
We should see a narrow window of some sunshine for central Minnesota midday Thursday. Clouds will largely be locked in place for Friday and Saturday, especially in the afternoon hours due to a cold, unstable atmosphere aloft. Sunnier skies return Sunday.
Highs Thursday will be in the 50s south to 40s north thanks to some peeks of sunshine midday.
Colder air is moving in for Friday and Saturday. Highs Friday will be in just the 30s and 40s.
This will set us up for a couple of cold nights Friday and Saturday nights with overnight lows in the 20s to near freezing.
Sunshine returns Sunday along with warmer temperatures and lighter winds.
Next week will overall be warmer.
New drought report doesn’t include recent rain
Thursday’s U.S. Drought Monitor report is unchanged due to the heaviest rain falling in central Minnesota, over areas already removed from drought and abnormally dry categories. Also, the data cutoff for each Thursday’s update is 7 a.m. Tuesday, so the new report does not include Tuesday and Wednesday’s rainfall.
Unfortunately, most of the severe drought region in north-central and northwestern Minnesota missed the more significant rainfall, but southeastern Minnesota did receive some decent rains.
Most of Freeborn, Mower, Fillmore and Houston counties which are in moderate to severe drought did receive more than 1 inch of rainfall Tuesday into Tuesday night. In addition, those areas also saw rainfall Thursday morning, up to three-fourths of an inch, estimated by radar.
All of this could point to some significant improvement in next Thursday’s drought conditions report for southeastern Minnesota.