Heat returns after cool break, storm chances this weekend

[00:00:00]Well, it was a cool morning this morning. Temperatures were in the 30s for a few spots in northeastern Minnesota almost 60° cooler. We got another comfortable day today, but [music] the heat is building in for the weekend, but this time it does come with a few storm chances.

[00:00:22]So, pretty cool this morning. Lot of widespread 40s across northern Minnesota, but a couple of the typically colder spots Brimstone and Embarrass were in the 30s uh even 36 only 4° from freezing in Brimstone. Uh down from highs that were in the mid-90s last week. Air quality is good again today, too. So, bonus. Uh you could let the windows uh uh bring in some cool and uh clean air last night. There is some wildfire smoke at least aloft showing up in the Dakotas though right now uh from upper-level winds coming straight from the Pacific Northwest where we have some fires burning there uh and most of it's elevated though there are some air quality issues in western North Dakota, but you can kind of see that plume of smoke uh out ahead of that cooler air that's moved in here over the last 24 hours or so uh pushing uh some of that at least elevated wildfire smoke this time from the west. There are also fires burning in northwestern Canada that is uh pushing in some of that, too, but over the next couple days uh kind of on average our uh upper-level flow here the jet stream is moving zonally which is uh west to east. So, we could see some elevated smoke at least making for some hazy skies. There's a better view of some of that smoke in North Dakota and few patchy areas of low clouds that were burning through this morning uh partly cloudy again today. Won't be completely sunny, but uh more sun than cloud cover.

[00:01:39]And temperatures mostly in the 70s today probably upper 70s in the Twin Cities, low 80s in western Minnesota. And I think dew points are going to drop more today to the 40s which is more of fall-like air than uh the middle or latter part of July, but don't worry.

[00:01:52]Humidity's coming back. Dew points remain in the 60s to near 70 by Saturday into this next uh stretch of hot weather, but we have another comfortable night tonight. Mostly 50s, probably around 60 in the Twin Cities. I think we'll see fewer 40s in northern Minnesota this uh tomorrow morning, but uh temperatures tomorrow will already start to be warming up. It'll still be comfortable, dew points in the 50s, but we'll see more 80s showing up on the on the map tomorrow and Friday.

[00:02:16]As the heat builds in again, this time the heat dome though is going to be centered further to the southwest. We talked about this yesterday, uh more into Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, uh and us on the northern edge, but it's going to be hot Saturday, temperatures into the 90s across much of central, southern, and western Minnesota. Uh but again, we're going to be more on the northern edge of the heat dome this time with that center off to the west. That means we'll see all these little ripples, what we call ridge riders, uh riding literally the ridge, that upper-level ridge or heat dome, uh with a couple of disturbances occasionally, which will at least create some spotty storms. The next chance will come for northern Minnesota Friday evening into Friday night. Uh hopefully going over those fires, so that could be some more welcome news. There is even a marginal severe risk with some of those storms late Friday, level one out of five. Uh and then Sunday into Sunday night, Monday, uh we'll see the low-level jet stream kind of pointing at us. That's those winds aloft by 4,000 or so feet above the ground, and that pushes warmth and moisture north, and that can lead to some overnight storms. So, it looks like Sunday night and early Monday, we could see some scattered showers and thunderstorms for those of us in central and southern Minnesota. So, kind of that pattern we've seen uh earlier in the month, too, where better chances of storms are in the overnight hours as those uh winds above the ground kind of accelerate and uh create some elevated uh thunderstorm activity. But, 78 today, comfy still, dry.

[00:03:36]83 tomorrow, uh pretty normal for uh late July temperatures, actually.

[00:03:41]Friday, we could see a shower or thunderstorm overnight, but again, most of that activity does look to stay into northern Minnesota. Sunny and hot on Saturday, and then we will look for that chance at least of some storms Sunday night.

[00:03:53]Timing that out in placement right now is a little bit of a a question mark.

[00:03:57]Still several days away, but what is likely is hotter and more humid conditions.