Gray Sunday with a shower chance; a look at April baseball

Here we go again.

Our Sunday will be cloudy, and gray skies could linger into Monday afternoon in eastern Minnesota and the Twin Cities metro area.

This is our fourth consecutive cloudy day in the Twin Cities and much of southern Minnesota.

Along with the clouds, much of Minnesota will see periods of light rain or drizzle Sunday into Sunday night. Northeastern Minnesota could see some freezing drizzle or light freezing rain at times.

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from Sunday through noon on Monday:

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NOAA NAM model simulated radar from Sunday through noon Monday, via tropicaltidbits

Some areas will receive very light rain or drizzle that isn't showing in the simulated radar from the forecast model.

The color chart to the right of the loop shows the strength of the radar signal returning to the radar, not inches of rain!

Temps rebound this week

Highs will be in the lower 40s in many parts of Minnesota this Sunday afternoon, with some 30s over northeastern Minnesota.

Highs rebound on Monday, with some 50s, especially in the west:

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The Twin Cities metro area will see highs around 50 on Monday, then lower 50s Tuesday through Friday.

Home opener weather

The Minnesota Twins played outdoor baseball from 1961 through 1981 at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington.

After a long stint of indoor baseball at the Metrodome, the Minnesota Twins returned to outdoor baseball at Target Field in Minneapolis in 2010.

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Target Field / source: minnesota.twins.mlb.com

The Minnesota State Climatology Office looked at the weather on the date of each of the Twins outdoor home openers:

The coldest home opener was April 14, 1962 with a high of 34 degrees and a low of 20 that day reported at the Twin Cities International Airport. Winds were quite brisk and gusting to 21mph out of the NW in the afternoon. The Minnesota Twins lost to the California Angels that day 5-12. The warmest opener was April 22, 1980 with a high temperature of 90 degrees. The Twins played the California Angels on this opener too, this time the Twins won 8-1.

Their study ran through 2013, so I checked Baseball Almanac for the dates of the Twins home openers since 2013.

Here are the Twin Cities high temps on home opener dates from 2014-2016:

2014   60 degrees (April 7)

2015   64 degrees (April 13)

2016   44 degrees (April 11)

The Twins home opener is April 3 this year.

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:49 a.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and at 7:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.