Cool this weekend; possibly some scattered showers
We were talking about warm weather during the first half of June, but the trend has now flipped to cool weather.
This is quite a change.
Here's a chart of Twin Cities temperatures this June, as logged at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport:
The highlighted column shows the departure from normal each day, with negative numbers indicating cooler than normal days.
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You'll notice that all of our cooler than normal readings were in the past five days.
We'll have a cooler than normal Friday, with metro highs in the lower 70s.
Northern and central Minnesota will see highs mostly in the 60s Friday afternoon.
Weekend temps
There'll be no need to run your air-conditioner this weekend!
Weekend highs will be in the 60s over most of Minnesota, with some upper 50s in the northwest.
Our average high temp is 82 degrees in the Twin Cities this weekend, so highs will be running about 14 degrees below normal.
To put that into perspective, upper 60s would be a typical high temp for May 9 and Sept. 25 in the Twin Cities.
Warmer next week
On Monday, 70s will return to Minnesota:
Twin Cities highs will be in the lower 70s Monday, around 80 Tuesday, then lower 80s on Wednesday.
Rain chances
Scattered showers are possible this Friday morning in northwestern Minnesota. All of Minnesota will have a chance of scattered showers and an isolated thunderstorm Friday afternoon and evening.
We're expecting some scattered showers and an isolated thunderstorm in Minnesota both days this weekend.
Northeastern Minnesota will probably see the most minutes of rain, southwestern Minnesota will see the fewest minutes of rain.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the rain pattern this weekend:
It'll probably rain in some areas that look dry on the simulated radar, but the loop illustrates the general rain pattern.
The color chart to the right of the loop refers to the strength of the signal that returns to the radar, not to the amount of rain.
Phoenix heat
Phoenix had a very hot week.
Here are this week's highs in Phoenix:
Monday: 118 degrees
Tuesday: 119 degrees
Wednesday: 117 degrees
Thursday: 113 degrees
New record highs were set on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
The heat wave isn't over yet:
An excessive heat warning remains in effect for the Phoenix area through Monday.
Today's excessive heat warning covers much of Arizona, and parts of southern California and Nevada:
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., 9:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.