Mild with a few showers/t-storms possible on Sunday

It has been a very quiet severe weather season so far across the Northland, in fact meteorologists at the National Weather Service Office in Duluth have only issued 9 severe thunderstorm warnings so far this year (thru June 20th) This is the fewest number of warnings issued in our area by the NWS since 2015 which also had 9 total warnings thru June 20th.

Source: https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/

Here’s a look at how many severe weather reports there have been so far in 2020 (thru June 19th)

Source: https://www.spc.noaa.gov

Red dots=Tornado reports

Green dots=Large hail reports (1″ or greater diameter)

Blue dots=Damaging wind reports (58 mph or greater)

A band of mostly light rain or drizzle has been lifting NE across the Northland this afternoon. This band of precip should move out of our area this evening.

Off to our west we’re seeing scattered strong to severe thunderstorms develop this afternoon over the eastern Dakotas into far northwest Minnesota, some of this activity may eventually spread into north-central Minnesota late tonight, but the intensity of the storms should be a lot weaker as they move further east tonight.

Source: Radar loop from June 20th, 2020 (ending 4:05 PM CT) https://weather.cod.edu

A look at the simulated radar forecast valid from 7 PM Saturday to 7 AM Monday.

Some showers scattered around the Northland tonight, and then we may see a few showers and thunderstorms develop on Sunday, with an isolated strong storm possible Sunday afternoon-early evening especially over eastern Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin.

Otherwise for Sunday I do think will have a little more sun compared to what most of us saw on Saturday. Highs are forecast to be in the 70s to lower 80s.

Source: 18z NAM 3km model 6.20.2020; https://weathermodels.com

Not expecting a whole lot of rain across the Northland through Monday morning, but there could be an area from eastern Minnesota into northwest Wisconsin which could get a quarter to half inch plus amounts due to possible convection Sunday afternoon/evening.

Source: https://lab.weathermodels.com/

The other big story in the Northland besides the lack of severe weather so far this year has been the lack of precipitation!

So far this year only 5.86″ of precipitation has fallen in Duluth, Minnesota which is -5.60″ below normal thru June 20th. So far 2020 is running >5″ below last year’s total precip thru June 20th which was 11.12″.

Table below shows yearly precipitation totals at the Duluth Airport from 2000 thru 2020.

Note: Total precip for 2020 is thru June 19th)

Thanks for reading!

Tim