Springtacular Thursday; “May Monsoon” starts Friday; 3″+ rainfall by Tuesday?

"Goldilocks" Forecast Thursday

It just doesn't get any better than this. Not too warm...not too cold. Just right.

In my 30+ years of "weather feedback"...Wednesday was what most Minnesotans think of as "perfect weather."

Our pristine blue spring sky, decorative white clouds and budding green leaves seem long overdue this year.

In this Updraft we celebrate a repeat performance Thursday, then turn our eyes to a wetter weather pattern starting Friday. That's some good news for parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin that have been fighting wildfires in this week's warm dry air mass.

Spectacular Thursday...then "May Monsoon" kicks in:

Get out and enjoy Thursday. Thursday starts sunny...then high clouds filter in as the day wears on. Another day near 80F in May is a bonus this spring.

Our weather pattern goes back to wet mode starting Friday.

A slow-moving low sets up in the eastern Dakotas and will linger through the weekend...and into early next week.

This means waves of occasional showers & T-Storms across Minnesota from Friday through next Tuesday.

Drought Buster? Some of the storms will produce locally heavy downpours through this weekend into next week.

NWS Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts (QPF) cranks out some 3"+ rainfall totals over a big swath of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest by next Tuesday.

The rainfall could further help alleviate what's left of drought in Minnesota in the next week.

Severe stays south?

I have my doubts about this right now...but NOAA's SPC is keeping most of the severe stuf south of Minnesota this weekend.

If the low tracks a little further north...I think we may see some strong to borderline severe storms this weekend in Minnesota.

Stay tuned!

Paul Huttner