Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

A better-than-average Memorial Day weekend

Scattered rain, but more dry hours this weekend. Will June start warm?

8 to 14-day temperature outlook
8 to 14-day temperature outlook
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Welcome to the first of the Big 3 warm-season holiday weekends in Minnesota!

Memorial Day is climatologically the wettest of the three major warm-season holiday weekends. If we can get two out of three mostly dry days, that’s a bonus this time of year.

My MPR News colleague and climate expert Mark Seeley reports that Minnesota is bumping on 5 inches of rainfall as an average statewide. That makes this May one of the top 13 wettest since records began in the 1800s.

In the map below, you can see how wet this month has been. The monthly rainfall total from the Midwest Regional Climate Center shows 3 to more than 5 inches around Minnesota.

Check out Iowa, where most of the state has recorded 5 inches this month with local rainfall totals of more than 10 inches!

May rainfall
May rainfall so far
Midwest Regional Climate Center

Scattered rain this weekend

We’ll enjoy many more dry hours than rainy hours this weekend across Minnesota. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh model catches the two main chances for rain this weekend. Check out the map below.

A band of scattered showers forms through central Minnesota Saturday afternoon. Then another cluster of showers and some embedded thunder roll through southeastern Minnesota, grazing the Twin Cities area Saturday night into midday Sunday.

The forecast model loop below runs between 1 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.

NOAA NAM 3 km model
High-Resolution Rapid Refresh model between 1 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday
NOAA, via Tropical Tidbits

A few widespread showers may pop up again on Memorial Day.

Temperatures this weekend start frosty in northwestern Minnesota Saturday morning but will warm to the 50s and 60s north to 70s south Saturday afternoon.

Forecast high temperatures Saturday
Forecast high temperatures Saturday
NOAA

Sunday brings similar temperatures statewide.

Forecast high temperatures Sunday
Forecast high temperatures Sunday
NOAA

Memorial Day also brings highs in the 70s south with mainly 60s north.

Forecast high temperatures Monday
Forecast high temperatures Monday
NOAA

NOAA’s temperature outlook for the first week of June slightly favors warmer-than-normal temperatures.

NOAA 8 to 14-day temperature outlook
8 to 14-day temperature outlook
NOAA

Cue the mosquitoes.