Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Updraft® is your source for Minnesota forecasts and insights from our expert meteorologists, Paul Huttner, Sven Sundgaard and Mandy Thalhuber.

MPR News brings you the latest weather outlook, across all of Minnesota, so you can be better prepared for your day.

Weekend split, cooler next week, El Nino brewing?
Wanted: Rain. It’s getting a little dry around these parts. Most of southern Minnesota is teetering on the edge of a drought hangover from  last fall. Soils were partially parched going into the freeze, and most of that snow melted away and ran off into rivers and lakes or evaporated into thin air the past Read more →
Mild Friday, record 100 days of sub-zero days up north this winter?
This week is good tonic for the Minnesota weather psyche. Our weather winning streak of milder days reaches lucky 7 Friday. Here’s a look at the kinder and gentler numbers for Friday afternoon across the Upper Midwest. A few stray showers may ride in early Friday. The better chance of any meaningful rain rolls in Read more →
Climate Cast: Is Minnesota the new Nebraska for irrigated crops?
Climate change in action? You’ve see those green circles from 30,000 feet up as you fly over Nebraska. The circular irrigation systems pump billions of gallons of water to create fields of green where there was once dryness. My colleague, MPR News reporter Mark Steil, produced an excellent piece this week on how crop irrigation is exploding Read more →