Generous weekend rain; a leap into summer Tuesday
Rainfall totals were quite generous in portions of the state on Saturday, with more spotty thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon and evening.
Sartell, Minn., picked up 3.54 inches of rain on Saturday, while portions of the southwest Twin Cities tallied less than a quarter inch, including the weather lab in Eden Prairie.
A swath of the landscape along the Minnesota River Valley in western Minnesota missed out on the bulk of the precipitation.
North central Minnesota, where the drought still persisted, received a nice rain on Saturday afternoon, with both Hibbing and Orr picking up an inch of rain.
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Some of the stronger thunderstorms produced large hail on Sunday afternoon. A report of 3-inch diameter hail in Alvarado in Marshall County was sent through social media to the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, N.D. Hail up to 1.75 inches in diameter was reported in Randall, Minn., in Morrison County.
A few isolated showers and thundershowers are possible this afternoon with highs in the 70s and lower 80s. Mother Nature kicks in the heat for Tuesday.
Timing is pretty good on this first hot day of the meteorological summer, as schools close and pools open.
The normal number of days in a summer of 90 degrees or more in the Twin Cities is 13 according to the Minnesota Climatology Working Group. In 2012, there were 31 days of 90 degrees or higher recorded at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
A cool front knifes through the state on Tuesday evening setting up the chance for a band of strong thunderstorms to form in central Minnesota. We'll track that front and see if some frisky thunderstorms erupt.
Here's the severe weather outlook from the Storm Prediction Center for Tuesday.
As this front stalls over northern Iowa on Wednesday more storms are expected to ignite in southern Minnesota on Thursday. The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration's Global Forecast System model generates some healthy rainfall totals on Thursday.
This graphic indicates rainfall on Thursday ending at 1 p.m.
Temperatures trend closer to normal from midweek through the weekend.