A look at rain chances; cool start to the week

Here's a quick weather update, with more details coming later this morning.

Minnesota still has some areas of smoke from Canadian wildfires this Sunday morning.

The air quality alert that's in effect for most of Minnesota will expire at noon today.

The chance of rain in Minnesota will expand eastward as we got through today and tonight:

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  • Showers and thunderstorms are covering much of northwestern and north-central Minnesota this Sunday morning.

  • The showers and t-storms are tracking northeastward, but the rain area should also expand southward to include west-central Minnesota later this morning and early this afternoon.

  • Southwestern Minnesota could see some showers and thunderstorms by around mid afternoon.

  • The Twin Cities metro area will have a chance of a shower/t-storm this Sunday evening.

  • There's a good chance of showers and a few embedded thunderstorms over central, southern and northeastern Minnesota overnight Sunday night and into Monday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential rain pattern Sunday evening through Monday:

rt819rad
NOAA NAM simulated radar from Sunday evening through Monday, via tropicaltidbits

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.

Updated weather information can be heard on the Minnesota Public Radio Network, and updates are also posted on the MPR News live weather blog.

Temperature trends

Sunday afternoon highs are expected to reach the 70s for about the northwestern half of MN, 80s in the southeastern half. The Twin Cities metro area could reach the mid 80s.

70s will be common on Monday:

rt0820h

Metro area highs are projected to reach the mid 70s Monday, followed by upper 70s Tuesday and lower 80s Wednesday through Friday. Our average high temp is 80 degrees this time of year in the Twin Cities.

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.