If it's not the smoke, it's the rain. Both will affect a lot of Minnesota over the next 24 hours or so.
Another air quality alert is in place until 11:00 p.m. Thursday night for smoke from those Canadian wildfires.
The rain? That's coming later Thursday - and it could be heavy.
"You know it's been pretty dry around here lately, so it's going to take a lot of rain for that to happen, but anytime you get 1 or 2 inch per hour rates in sensitive areas such as like a metro area, you're gonna have the potential to have some flash flooding develop," says National Weather Service Meteorologist Bill Borghoff. "Especially if those storms train over the same areas for several hours."
Borghoff says there's a decent chance of seeing some flood watches posted for later Thursday in some areas. It's all due to a front that has stalled in Central Minnesota along I-94 and it includes the Twin Cities.
This is definitely the most active part of year for storms, with showers and thunderstorms possible every day for the next week or so.
"We're reaching our peak severe weather season across the Upper Midwest during mid to late June," Borghoff explains. "So it's right on time and hopefully we won't have so much rainfall that we have to deal with river flooding. But we'll have to see what materializes."
Timing - and the Twins?
WCCO-TV Chief Meterologist Chris Shaffer says once the rain has shifted north a bit. And that might be bad news for Twins fans.
"It's stuck along this stationary front right now down in southern Minnesota," Shaffer said on the WCCO Morning News. "So it's already raining across the southern part of the state. It's trying to work its way toward us, and a lot of it is evaporating on the leading edge. So it's going to be interesting to see if it can hold together."
Will the Twins actually get in Thursday's game against Texas? First pitch is scheduled for 12:10 p.m.
"Yesterday I had more hope, but the line has shifted farther north," he adds. "So I don't know if it's going to get in. I have my doubts at this point because once it starts raining, it's just gonna keep raining."
How much rain are we talking?
"We're gonna see some healthy totals out of this, maybe 1 to 2 inches, even around the Twin Cities with 2 to 3 inches possible in areas to the west and to the north," Shaffer predicts. "The whole line, as I mentioned earlier, has kind of shifted farther north with where we expect the steady rain."
THURSDAY: Rain (isolated thunder south). High: 68. E 5-10 mph.
THURSDAY NIGHT: Rain. Low: 55. SE wind 8-12 mph.
FRIDAY: More rain (steady early…showers later). High: 67. NE wind 5-10 mph.
Air Quality Alert until 11 p.m. Thursday. Dry this weekend with highs in the upper-70s Saturday and close to 80 on Father's Day.