Scattered evening T-Storms; cooler and less humid air seeps south

Some of us will be blessed with some much-needed rainfall tonight. Spotty thunderstorms along an advancing cold front crawl slowly through southern Minnesota tonight. A few of the storms will pack locally heavy rainfall, gusty winds and possibly some hail.

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Cooler air oozes south

The cool front sags south through Minnesota tonight then stalls in Iowa. That boundary is the dividing line between deep summer heat and humidity to the south, and relatively comfortable air over Minnesota the next few days. It's also the focus for showers and thunderstorms to our south.

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NOAA

We hit 91 degrees in the Twin Cities Tuesday.

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That's day 18 of 90-degree heat this year and blows away our average of 11 days. Watch the cooler air behind the front seep gradually south into Minnesota overnight into Wednesday.

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NOAA NAM 3 km model temperature forecast into Wednesday afternoon via tropical tidbits.

Cooler front next week

Most models favor an even stronger shoot of cool air next week.

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NOAA via Weather Bell.

Getting dry out there

Areas of drought are popping up in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. The long range forecast still looks drier than average. Soils this time of year can evaporate over an inch of moisture a week. Exceptional drought is now present in parts of northwest Missouri. That's the first time in 5 years we've observed that level of drought in the Midwest.

Stay tuned.