textproduct: Twin Cities

KEY MESSAGES

- Mainly dry through Tuesday, then best chance of showers and thunderstorms comes late Tuesday night, followed by minor chances for additional rain through the rest of the week.

- Hot/humid conditions continue today, then warm and less humid conditions for the rest of the week.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 254 AM CDT Mon Aug 31 2026

Current water vapor imagery this morning depicts a trough of low pressure that extends from Manitoba over to Alberta and moving east. Closer to the surface, an associated cold front extends from Nebraska up through South Dakota before it becomes occluded across North Dakota. Adjacent to this feature, a warm front spans central MN into western WI. The cold front is expected to sweep through the course of today. Currently, surface obs are reporting warm and muggy conditions across much of MN/WI with temps in the lower 70s and dew points sharing near the same values. Patchy fog has developed across portions of western and central MN this morning but will mix out shortly after sunrise. Light southerly winds shift NW'ly as the front proceeds through the area around midday. Unfortunately the forcing for this system looks to be aloft versus at the surface. Additionally, the track of the low is too displaced to our north. Therefore, precip chances for today will be practically null. As for temperatures, those in western MN, can expect highs in the lower 80s while western WI looks to linger in the upper 80s to lower 90s with heat index values in the 90s.

Now lets talk about dew points. Today's 00z sounding at MPX recorded a dew point of 73 degrees. Although this comes nowhere near our record value (81.7 degrees), we are still well above climatology for this time of year (i.e. a mean of 58 degrees for late August). So aside from this surface front not providing much precip today, dew points are expected to fall back closer to climatology levels for most of the week. Despite temperatures remaining above average, heat index values will only range 1-2 degrees warmer than our surface temperatures.

Transitioning to precipitation, our next "best" shot at beneficial rainfall looks to be Tuesday night. Latest QPF is nothing to get too excited about however trends do look to range between a tenth and two tenths of an inch across central MN to whereas a few tenths of an inch in for portions of southern MN. After that, zonal flow will keep us in a holding pattern for nightly precip chances. Most areas can expected to stay dry from these periods as coverage would be isolated to scattered at best. Perhaps, stronger forcing could influence greater rainfall. Simply put, we need the rain. Our month- to-date rainfall deficit as of Aug 31st is -3.76". So far this year (since Jan 1st), we are in a -6.83" deficit. Meaning, half of our drought is just from this month alone. Unless any new precip falls prior to midnight tonight, we'll observe our 4th driest August on record of 0.46".

AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z WEDNESDAY/

Issued at 1226 PM CDT Mon Aug 31 2026

A cold front was just pushing east of I-35 at the start of this period, but with the parent upper low forcing it way up in southern Canada, this will be yet another dry frontal passage in this dry August. Drier air coming in behind the front will greatly limit fog potential tonight, with EAU looking to be the only site that could see some radiational fog as they will have the highest lingering dewpoints. No issues with the weather through 18z Tuesday, with light SW to W winds and clear skies.

KMSP...Wind direction may start out Tuesday morning around 200 degrees before becoming established out of the west by late morning. However, speeds for any more southerly winds Tuesday morning will be under 5 kts.

/OUTLOOK FOR KMSP/ TUE EVE...SHRA/TSRA likely. Wind lgt and vrb outside of TSRA. WED...VFR. Chc TSRA late night. Wind SE 5 kts. THU...VFR. Chc TSRA overnight. Wind SE 5-10 kts. FRI...VFR. Wind S 5-10 kts.

MPX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

MN...None. WI...None.