Cool weekend; dry week ahead
Many Minnesotans will have a chance to use their sunglasses this weekend.
That's great, after our recent stretch of mostly cloudy days!
Winds will be gusty through Saturday, but they'll ease up on Sunday.
Most of us won't see any rain or snow.
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Temperature trends
Highs in the 30s will be common over southern Minnesota this Saturday, with 20s north.
A few spots in the far northwest might stay in the teens.
Highs Sunday return to the 40s in west-central and southwestern Minnesota:
Mostly 30s are expected elsewhere in Minnesota, with some upper 20s northeast.
Monday will be the warmest day of the coming week, with highs ranging from the lower 50s in southwestern Minnesota to 30s in the northeast:
Some spots in the Twin Cities metro area could touch 50 degrees Monday afternoon.
A cold front moves through Minnesota Monday night, and the Twin Cities high temp could be around 30 degrees on Tuesday.
Lower 30s are expected on Wednesday, then the Twin Cities metro area could see lower 40s on Thanksgiving Day.
Precipitation chances
The weekend should be dry for most of Minnesota, but far north-central and northeastern areas have a chance of a few flurries or light snow showers Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential weekend snow 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 or snow.
New satellite launched
The launch of NOAA’s newest polar orbiting weather satellite JPSS-1 was successful early Saturday morning:
According to NOAA:
JPSS polar satellites circle the Earth from pole-to-pole and cross the equator about 14 times daily in the afternoon orbit—providing full global coverage twice a day.
Satellites in the JPSS constellation gather global measurements of atmospheric, terrestrial and oceanic conditions, including sea and land surface temperatures, vegetation, clouds, rainfall, snow and ice cover, fire locations and smoke plumes, atmospheric temperature, water vapor and ozone.
JPSS delivers key observations for the Nation’s essential products and services, including forecasting severe weather like hurricanes, tornadoes and blizzards days in advance, and assessing environmental hazards such as droughts, forest fires, poor air quality and harmful coastal waters. Further, JPSS will provide continuity of critical, global Earth observations— including our atmosphere, oceans and land through 2038.
Polar orbiting satellites travel just 512 miles above the earth's surface.
The satellite images that you see online or on television are typically from NOAA's geosynchronous satellites, which hover 22,300 miles above a fixed point on the earth.
NOAA prepared a great video, which shows the types of the data that will be gathered in "swaths" as JPSS-1 circles the earth.
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.