Here’s the good news. Monday looks like a great summer day with very low humidity. Then the heat kicks up and once again, it looks like the Twin Cities are going to miss the bulk of some much needed rain according to WCCO Chief Meteorologist Paul Douglas.
“It's going to be dribs and drabs rain for us for the next few weeks,” Douglas told Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News. “I just don't see us breaking out of this hot dry pattern. Today, we'll be comfortable mid-eighties, I'm saying 80 with low humidity. Dew points are in the fifties. Tomorrow, another heat spike. Mid-nineties, a heat index of maybe 100 to 102 tomorrow.
The hottest day of the week.”
The Twin Cities office of the National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for Tuesday from 1:00p.m. to 8:00p.m. for an area of the state roughly south and west of I-94. That area includes the Twin Cities. The NWS is advising people to drink plenty of water and to take plenty of breaks from the heat inside an air conditioned building.
With the heat and humidity, there is a risk of some severe weather. If you’re north and east of the Twin Cities, you should keep an eye out for storms.
“The storm prediction center is predicting a few severe storms tomorrow night,” Douglas says about Tuesday evening. “I think they'll fire off around Duluth and then dive bomb southward down the St. Croix River Valley, and possibly brush the Metro. So there could be some rough storms tomorrow night.”
The bad news, again, is the Twin Cities are being on the edge of rain which we have consistently missed out on since the start of June.
“We'll take the rain, and about a third of the state is abnormally dry,” explains Douglas. “8% of Minnesota in moderate or severe drought. A big bull's eye in that drought right over the South Metro. Last year at this time, about 75% of the state was in severe drought, so not as bad as last summer, but I do think the drought will get worse.”
While there has been decent rain across a good portion of Minnesota, the lack of rain across the central part of the state, especially near the metro, is becoming a problem. The Twin Cities are around five inches below normal as your lawn is likely telling you.
Douglas says warm and dry is going to be the trend through August.
“We're going to be back up near 90 again Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and much of next week I don't see a significant break in this hot pattern looking out through mid-August. After that, all bets are off. I hope we cool off and get the sustained soaking rains we need.”
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