Hot, dry weather and wildfire smoke are elevating ground-level ozone across most of Minnesota today.

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Our unseasonable near-record warmth and dryness continues across Minnesota into Tuesday evening. A July-like air mass is pushing temperatures to near-record levels again across much of Minnesota.  

Temperatures are in the 90s again in the Red River Valley and most of northwestern Minnesota. Most of the state is well into the 80s on this summery Tuesday afternoon in May. 

Numerous high-temperature records are likely across northwestern Minnesota Tuesday. The  Twin Cities will likely fall short of the record high of 92 degrees set in 2007, but temperatures are running about 20 degrees above the normal high of 68 degrees.

Smoke alerts continue for northeastern Minnesota due to multiple wildfires:

Wednesday brings another summery day to Minnesota.

Dew points have been in the desert-dry 20s and 30s across northern Minnesotan early this week.

A southerly flow from the Gulf will advect low level moisture into Minnesota Wednesday and Thursday. Dew points will gradually rise into the 50s and 60s. That should help dampen fire behavior somewhat in the coming days.

A low-pressure system will spin into Minnesota Thursday. Scattered rain and some thunderstorms will roam Minnesota from late Wednesday night into Friday. 

NOAA’s FV3 model gives you the flavor of scattered rain and thunder cells spinning in. The forecast model loop below runs between 1 a.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday. 

Overall rainfall totals may be spotty as usual with warm-season convection in Minnesota. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and other models suggest an inch of rain is likely from about the Twin Cities northward, but coverage may be spotty.

There is a marginal risk for a couple severe storms from late Wednesday night through Thursday.

Cooler temperatures behind the front will be a relief for firefighters as we head into the weekend.

Paul Huttner

Author

Extreme fire weather continues through this evening across Minnesota.

MPCA

NOAA

NOAA via tropical tidbits

European (ECMWF) model precipitation output

Fire danger, smoke and air quality alerts continue

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