Freeze likely up north tonight

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Temperatures in northern Minnesota will plunge into the 30's by Wednesday morning.

Welcome to meteorological summer in Minnesota.

A cool dry Canadian air mass will allow temperatures to drop to near and below freezing overnight in much of northern Minnesota. There may even be some patchy frost as far south as St. Cloud and Hinckley.

Even the metro will feel the chill after dark tonight. The overnight low temperature at Twin Cities Airport may dip to near 45 degrees by morning. Some of the outer suburbs could see readings a slow as 40 degrees.

While the early morning chill is noticeable for early June, it is not likely to be record setting. The record low for the Twin Cities Wednesday is 34 degrees set in 1945. Up north, frost is common until mid-June in many areas.

The air mass over Minnesota is also very dry. Dew points are in the 30's today. The air over Minnesota today is as dry as the Arizona. The dew point in Phoenix is 34 degrees at noon today. Dry air heats and cools easily. That is one reason we are seeing big temperature swings from day to night as the powerful June sun heats the air quickly during the daylight hours.

The cool start to June is likely to persist into the coming weekend. Thursday looks like the warmest day this week.

Our dry weather pattern looks persistent as well. There is some chance of rain this weekend, but so far it does not look very impressive. The longer range weather crystal ball shows some chance of a wetter pattern developing around mid-month. That too, is too far out to bet the farm on. We need the rain badly. Today's crop report shows short to very short topsoil conditions over much of central Minnesota centered on the Twin Cities.

So we'll have to enjoy the pleasantly cool days and chilly nights for most of this week. It could be worse, that's for sure.

PH