Enjoy the cooldown while you can, because it won't last for long in Minnesota

[00:00:00]Well, we've got cooler, drier air in place, [music] and it's sticking around for a few days. Enjoy it because the heat is coming back this weekend, but we will have a few spotty storm chances this week though.

[00:00:19]So, air quality is good to moderate for most areas. We still have the fires burning, kind of smoldering in the Boundary Waters into Quetico, but those will probably fire up again the next chance we have some sunny, hot, dry days. So, those fires are not out, but the smoke at least for the time being has subsided. We do have some elevated smoke though from the western fires in the Pacific Northwest in the Northwest territories of Canada. So, we're getting kind of a sampling of all the different smoke in the continent right now, but this is a smoke aloft. It's not affecting air quality. Picked up some decent rain yesterday for the southern part of the state, inch and a half for places like Austin, Stewartville, Owatonna had almost 2 inches of rain, but most places saw less than that. We're racking up some deficits here after that heat dome. It is going to be pretty breezy again today, especially western Minnesota.

[00:01:04]Sustained winds 20-25 mph and 15 to 20 up to the north. Tomorrow those winds will be calmer though as high pressure settles in, but any wind is not good for those fires up north. Relative humidity should be higher though. They are a couple sprinkles up there. It's going to stay cloudy and cool in the northeast part of the state. So, that does help cooler temperatures just inevitably help fighting the fire situation. So, just 60s up into the northeastern part of the state in the Arrowhead. Most of us 70s to near 80 in the Twin Cities, but a comfortable night tonight, and I think the air quality stays good. So, you can open the windows, let in some fresh air, probably upper 50s in the Twin Cities.

[00:01:39]Most places, of course, cooler, and in fact in the 40s overnight northeastern Minnesota. Downright cool. Similar temperatures tomorrow, 70s to near 80° highs, actually below normal for the first time since the middle of June.

[00:01:52]Well, last time we had cooler normal temperatures really. And the next heat dome is building next week, but this time the center of the heat dome is going to be further to our south and west, and we'll explain the implications of that in a second. But, by Saturday, highs are back in the 90s uh as early as Friday in the Red River Valley, probably. Uh, we'll see some 90° temperatures. We get a nice break from those high dew points for now. In fact, we could see dew points in the 40s, almost fall-like air. But, then that air is going to be surging back northward, that tropical air uh for the weekend with that next chance of uh 90s 90s ahead. Looks like a string of 90s, probably not 10 in a row like we just had, but several of them anyway on the way here after a few cooler, more comfortable days. But, as I mentioned, this time the heat dome is going to be centered differently. Last time the center of it was almost right on top of us at one point. This time it looks to be more typically focused into uh Texas, Oklahoma. That will push the heat in our direction, but with the center of the heat dome off to our southwest, we're going to get these ridge riders, we call them, uh little ripples or disturbances on the northern edge of the heat dome.

[00:02:56]First one's probably Friday, another one Sunday. So, that at least gives us the chance of some spotty storms, especially in the overnight hours, every other day or so. So, you can see the European model here occasionally giving especially northern Minnesota some chances of rain. So, that's some welcome news because this last time we had basically 10 days of just dry, hot weather because we're in the center of it. So, this 5-day forecast total rainfall, this is Saturday to Wednesday, does show some rain over Minnesota because again the center of the heat dome, the drier conditions will be just to our south, southwest. So, that's one of the differences here with this round of heat versus the one we just came out of.

[00:03:34]Near 80 though today and tomorrow, beautiful, partly cloudy skies uh with low humidity. In fact, as I mentioned, tomorrow dew points could drop into the 40s, which will make it feel very nice. Uh, and then again, Friday, Sunday, some at least spotty thunder chances, but overall just uh hot again by the weekend, low to mid-90s into the early part of next week, probably.