April soaker south of metro; Drought easing in parts of northern MN

.50" to 1" doppler and rainfall reports for much of south central Minnesota

Well placed - rain is falling right over areas of "severe drought" in southern Minnesota

On the edge - Twin Cities on the northern edge of rainfall Thursday

86.75% of Minnesota listed in "drought" last week

64.62% of Minnesota listed in "drought" this week!

Drought easing - mainly in northwest & north central Minnesota

Cool wind map from NOAA's Digital Forecast Data Base here

Real time wind from NOAA:

(Note you may need Firefox or Google Chrome to view this image)

Source: NOAA

Wanted: Rainfall

This is how it sould work.

Thursday's soaking rain fell right over the "severe drought" areas in south central Minnesota.

Good soakers osuth of the metro

Source: WxUndergrond and WX Bug

Here are some rainfall totals as of late Thursday PM (and still raining) for selected southern Minnesota locations. (Data from WxUndergorund and Weather Bug sites)

New Prague .49"

Mankato .50"

Pine Island .63"

Dodge Center .89"

Ellendale .91"

New Ulm 1.42"

The rain skirted just south of the metro, with just .17" reported in Eden Prairie, Lakeville and Farmington. Little or no rain fell in the north metro.

Nipping away at the drought:

Our recent rainy (and snowy up north) pattern is nipping away at drought in parts of Minnesota.

Thursday's U.S. Drought Monitor shows a 22% decrease in drought coverage in Minnesota. The area in Minnesota listed in "moderate" to "severe" drought (D1-D2) fell from 86.75% to 64.62% last week.

Source: USDA/UNL

The areas that benefitted most are in northwest and north central Minnesota from Near Moorhead and Thief River Falls and Bemidji, east to Walker, the Iron Range, Duluth and parts of the North Shore.

Source: Duluth NWS

Here's more and a preview of Mark Seeley's Weather Talk, which will be posted here in Updraft when it clears the web on Friday morning.

Topic: Dewpoint records set, along with precipitation and snowfall records, April 15-16

"Just ahead of the rain and thunderstorms over April 15th strong southeast winds brought in warm, moist air to southern Minnesota, setting new high dewpoint records for the date. MSP tied a record from 1976 with a late afternoon dewpoint of 61 degrees F, while preliminary data indicate a new dewpoint record of 63 degrees F at Fairmont and Mankato. In addition a new dewpoint record of 64 degrees F was set at New Ulm. These values occurred just ahead of the severe thunderstorms, hail, funnel clouds, tornadoes, and strong winds which were reported last Sunday.

Many observers reported heavy precipitation on April 15th and 16th, some record-setting. MSP reported a new record with 1.19 inches, while St Cloud reported a record 1.51 inches. Others reporting new daily precipitation records included: 2.22 inches at Browns Valley; 2.11 inches at Wheaton; 2.10 inches at Pelican Rapids; 2.02 inches at Duluth; 1.97 inches at Rothsay; 1.87 inches at Babbitt; 1.85 inches at Tower; 1.71 inches at Moose Lake; 1.71 inches at Pipestone; 1.59 inches at Park Rapids; 1.53 inches at Aitkin; 1.51 inches at Grand Rapids; 1.46 inches at Spring Grove; 1.36 inches at Hibbing; and 1.14 inches at Morris.

In the far north, strong winds (50-60 mph) and significant amounts of snow were reported, with many roads closed, power outages, and numerous accidents. Several observers reported new daily record snowfall amounts for April 16th, including: Babbitt with 5 inches; Tower with 6.3 inches; Cook, Hibbing, and Bigfork with 8.0 inches; Kabetogama had a record 9.4 inches; and Orr and Chisholm received a whooping record 11 inches."

Cool start to the weekend:

Friday will feature cool temps mostly in the 50s.

Saturday brings another low pressure wave will bring a shot of showers, and ot could be cold enough to mix with for some snow from Brainerd to Duluth.

Source: NOAA/NWS

Warmer next week:

As the new week opens on Sunday, a new "kinder and gentler spring" weather pattern takes hold.

Sunshine will increase into next week, and a slow warming trend Sunday & Monday will give way to a fill blown warm up by mid week.

Temps should push into the 70s by Tuesday, and 80 degrees looks like a real possibility by Wednesday and Thursday of next week!

Source: ISU

With the heat (and some humidity) comes a thunder threat by next Thursday & Friday.

We'll have to see if parameters for severe weather come together, but at this point it looks possible.

Hang in there, it may feel like early summer around here by next week!

PH