Northern Minnesota is under a new alert until Friday at 7 p.m.

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Last week was severe weather awareness week with a siren drill in Minnesota and Wisconsin. This week we may get the real deal.

A cold front carving through Minnesota will produce scattered strong to severe thunderstorms Thursday afternoon and evening across southern Minnesota. 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center

 includes southern Minnesota in the severe weather risk zone Thursday. You can see on the map above that the Twin Cities is in the lower marginal risk (1 of 5) zone, with southern Minnesota in a  slight risk (2 of 5) area.

On the map below, NOAA’s FV3 model shows the likely development of storms in the midafternoon Thursday west of the Twin Cities. This model generates a broken line of scattered storms that move through the Twin Cities area between about 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday. 

Large hail and potentially damaging wind gusts are the primary severe weather risks with stronger storms Thursday. Keep an eye out for possible severe weather watches and warnings Thursday afternoon and evening across southern Minnesota.

Highs Thursday ahead of the front will reach the low 70s in the south with 60s into the Twin Cities area. 

We’re back into the 50s south and 40s north through the upcoming weekend. Our next rain chance arrives Sunday.

Paul Huttner

Author

Strong to severe thunderstorms are possible Thursday afternoon and evening.

Severe risk Thursday includes the Twin Cities area

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