Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Warmer Thursday. Next round of rain, thunder move in late in the day

Highs will be near 80 in southern Minnesota and the Twin Cities

THU PM WX
Forecast surface weather conditions Thursday night
National Weather Service

Updated 9 a.m.

Thursday will be warmer with sunshine through high clouds. Showers and thunderstorms develop late in western Minnesota and fill in east into Friday.

Warmer, dry most of Thursday; rain Friday

Most of eastern and southern Minnesota will remain dry Thursday. There are a few left over sprinkles in east-central Minnesota and western Wisconsin early Thursday along the warm front boundary. Northwestern Minnesota will see more clouds and scattered showers.

Storms will develop in the Dakotas later in the day and start to move into western Minnesota later in the evening.

thu precip 8a
Forecast precipitation 7 a.m. through 8 p.m. Thursday
College of DuPage weather lab

There’s a marginal risk (level 1 of 5) of severe weather for western Minnesota with even a slight risk (level 2 of 5) around the Fargo-Moorhead region Thursday into Thursday night. The biggest threat is potential high wind gusts and large hail.

day 1 spc
Severe weather outlook for Thursday into Thursday night
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Storm Prediction Center

High temperatures will be near 80 degrees in southern Minnesota but just in the 50s and 60s in northwestern Minnesota with more clouds and showers.

thu hi 8a
Forecast highs Thursday
National Weather Service

Showers and thunderstorms will fill in and track east into the overnight Thursday into Friday morning. We’ll have scattered showers and thunder mainly in the morning and midday Friday for eastern Minnesota with more isolated activity in the afternoon.

fri precip 8a
Forecast precipitation 7 p.m. Thursday through 1 a.m. Saturday
NOAA, via Pivotal Weather

The next round of rainfall looks most significant for northwestern Minnesota, where more than 1-2 inches could fall. Central and southern Minnesota will vary from one-half inch to 1 inch, mostly.

48 hr qpf
Forecast rainfall through early Saturday
NOAA, via Pivotal Weather

The holiday weekend will not be 100 percent dry and totally clear, but it will not be a washout. There will be isolated to spotty chances of rain with occasional clouds. It will be the coolest Memorial Weekend in a few years with highs ranging from the low 70s to low 60s. 

weekend precip temps
Forecast highs and rain chances for the holiday weekend
National Weather Service

Drought continues to shrink in Minnesota

Just 8 percent of the state is considered in at least moderate drought, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor conditions report. That’s down from 11 percent a week ago.

drought 05-23
This week's latest drought monitor shows conditions through early Tuesday.
National Drought Mitigation Center

The biggest change was in the northwestern corner of the state. Kittson County is no longer in moderate drought but is now considered abnormally dry.

drought compare
Comparison of last week's and this week's drought monitor
National Drought Mitigation Center

Of course it’s been a very wet seven days recently. Much of Minnesota has seen 2 to 4 inches of rainfall in the past week.

In the Twin Cities, it’s our wettest spring since 2019, which was the wettest year on record. Much of that was not considered in this drought report as the data cutoff time is 7 a.m. Tuesday, before Tuesday evening’s torrential downpours.

7 day rains
Rainfall estimates for the past 7 days
NOAA, via Pivotal Weather