Windy April continues with scattered showers
April weather in Minnesota is typically variable from day to day, with sunny, pleasant days interspersed with showery, stormy days. Temperatures have their ups and down. And the winds sweeping around weather systems can be raw on the cooler days.
Maybe you have had enough gusty winds so far this April. Including today, Monday April 22, the Twin Cities have experienced winds gusting over 30 mph on 20 of the last 21 days. The windiest day of this stretch has been last Tuesday, with a peak gust of 50 mph.
Showery weather system
Monday’s southwesterly wind is the leading edge of a weak weather system tracking eastward from the Dakotas into Minnesota and then Wisconsin. Widely scattered showers broke out over Minnesota Monday afternoon and then headed for Wisconsin.
Much of the rain has been evaporating as it falls into dry sub-cloud air.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
More scattered showers will rev up in the counterclockwise backside flow from Minnesota into Wisconsin on Tuesday. A few afternoon thunderstorms are possible. Most rainfall totals for the two days will be light.
A chilly northwest wind, likely topping 30 mph again, will bring a cooler day for Tuesday. Look for high temperatures in the mid-40s to mid-50s north and around 60 in the south. The Twin Cities should see upper 50s, which would be close to average.
Pleasant midweek
Wednesday will start out with widespread frost before sunshine and just light winds bring us a pleasant afternoon with no weather systems in the area.
High temperatures Wednesday look to be mostly mid-50s to low 60s, but cooler near Lake Superior.
Thursday should turn out to be the warmest day of the week. Gusty south winds should boost high temperatures to the mid-60s to low 70s.
The Twin Cities seems likely to top out in the upper 60s but could reach those low 70s as actual high temperatures have been beating forecast highs for much of this weird winter and spring.
Unsettled periods Friday into next week
A storm system will arrive from the southwest Thursday night or early Friday and hang around for Saturday. This one looks like widespread rain, not snow, for Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Another rainy weather maker should arrive on Sunday.
Then next week seems likely to see more weather flip-flops from soggy to fair weather and back to soggy at times. Overall, the precipitation outlook for April 28 – May 2 is forecast to be wetter than normal.
