Rain, drought and another amazing weekend

There's a little something for everyone in this forecast.

Our departing low pressure system has been vexing for severe storm forecasters.

In the end, it appears extensive cloud cover has limited the severe threat for much of southern Minnesota Thursday evening. Scattered showers and thunderstorms slide across Minnesota overnight. As of post time it appears most of the storms should stay below severe limits. Storms developing across southern Minnesota have been running into a hostile, more stable air mass (lower CAPE values) as they approach the Twin Cities metro.

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has issued a severe thunderstorm watch until 11 p.m. for Iowa and far southern Minnesota. It does not include the Twin Cities and most of southern Minnesota.

Low pressure pushes east Friday, and skies will clear as yet another pleasant Canadian high pressure cell nudges south into Minnesota.

Another winning weekend

Yes, Minnesota is winning the weekend weather lottery lately. Get ready for another nearly perfect weather across most of Minnesota.

Drought expands

Some of these areas got some rain after post time for the drought monitor update Tuesday evening, but overall dryness is expanding across Minnesota on this week's updated U.S. Drought Monitor.

Seeley: 1936 heat wave was a record event

How hot was it? My mom used to tell us stories about people sleeping outside near the shores of Lake Calhoun in an effort to cool off in the pre-air conditioning era.

Mark Seeley elaborated this week on the intense magnitude of the 1936 heat wave. Here's an exclusive preview of Mark's Weather Talk for Updraft readers. You can hear more from Mark on MPR News Friday morning in the 6 a.m. hour.

Weekly Weather Potpourri:

Super Typhoon Nepartak in the Western Pacific Ocean was tracking toward Taipei this week. It packed winds in excess of 150 mph, producing sea waves over 40 feet. It was expected to cross Taipei over the weekend.

The United Kingdom Meteorological Office will provide rail forecasts for the Eurotunnel train service that connects the UK with France. These forecasts will include storm and flood risk to operations of the trains which average 57,000 passengers daily. You can read more at…

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2016/eurotunnel

NOAA reports that Alaska just concluded its 9th warmest June in history. This follows a consistent pattern of warmer than normal months during 2016. The first 6 months of 2016 are warmer than any other year in Alaska history, averaging about 9°F warmer than normal.

MPR listener question: I heard you talk about the famous July 1936 Heat Wave earlier this week on Tom Weber’s program. When was the peak of that Heat Wave? My grandpa said they had a number of cows die that month.

Answer: The peak of the Heat Wave was over July 6-15. There was no respite from the heat. In the Twin Cities alone there were over 175 deaths attributed to heat, and statewide it is estimated between 760-900 people lost their lives. The casualty rate among farm livestock was not formally estimated, but must have been in the hundreds at least.