Brighter today; soaking rain on Friday, then weekend improvement
It's great to see the sunshine again!
The weather will cooperate Thursday if you decide to eat outdoors or take a lunchtime walk in the fresh air. And yes, our lawns will be dry enough to mow today.
Temperature trends
Highs Thursday will be in the upper 50s over much of Minnesota, but there will be some 60s from the Twin Cities metro area into southeastern Minnesota.
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Our average high this time of year is 68 degrees in the Twin Cities metro area, but we'll probably be a few degrees shy of that.
Fridays highs will only reach the 50s in southern Minnesota and the Twin Cities:
High temps rebound into the 60s on Saturday:
Many areas will reach the lower 70s Sunday afternoon:
It's should be a very pleasant Mother's Day.
Twin Cities high temps are expected to be a degree or two either side of 80 Monday through Wednesday of next week.
Rainy Friday
Scattered showers are possible late this Thursday afternoon and Thursday evening in southwestern and south-central Minnesota.
The main rain event in the southern half of Minnesota will be overnight Thursday night and much of Friday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential rain pattern Thursday evening through Friday evening:
The NAM model shows the highest rain totals will be in far southern Minnesota overnight Thursday night through Friday :
Some areas in the far south could see two inches or more of rain, and the ground is already soggy in spots.
Scattered showers are possible in far southern Minnesota on Saturday, but the metro area and most of central and northern Minnesota should have a dry weekend.
Here's the National Weather Service depiction of rainfall totals:
Ice-out update
The ice is finally out of most Minnesota lakes.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has ice-out information for many Minnesota lakes.
The ice went out yesterday on Leech Lake, according to Steve Nosbisch:
Just like that the ice is out! It’s amazing what 24 hours can do. The all day rain yesterday really worked wonders on the ice. As of this morning there is open water as far as I can see from all the spots that I have checked including Portage Bay.
With the ice going out a couple days before opener it should give the walleyes a chance to spawn without much interruption from anglers. That means two things, the likelihood of a successful spawn and natural reproduction just went up, and the fish should be hungry and willing to bite on Saturday!
That's what's called a just in time ice-out!
I hope that you have a great weekend!