5:50 PM Wednesday, June 7, 2023
A cool night ahead in parts of the Northland with a chance for patchy frost in northwest Wisconsin (inland from Lake Superior) as temperatures fall into the 30s with milder temperatures around 50 farther west toward the Brainerd and Walker areas.
We have one more day of an east wind to deal with near Lake Superior Thursday which will help keep temperatures in the 50s once again, but a wind shift to the southwest is forecast Friday which will help warm things up with temperatures possibly hitting 80 degrees Friday afternoon, but don’t get use to this as will see a stronger NE wind and much cooler temperatures return this weekend.
Locations farther away from Lake Superior (~20 miles) can expect temperatures to remain in the 70s through Sunday with a few 80s likely Friday.
As for rain, the best chance comes Friday night into Saturday as scattered showers move through the Northland but nothing widespread in terms of rainfall is expected. Note — If we don’t get any rain in Duluth Friday night or Saturday, then it looks like we might have to wait until next weekend (around June 16-18) for our next chance at getting some rain.
NWS Blend of Models total rainfall through Sunday morning (7 AM)
Note — I also added some timing to this rain.
HRRR model radar forecast through 7 PM Thursday.
We are looking at the possibility for some more wildfire smoke to impact northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin late tonight through the day Thursday, but a lot of this smoke should remain in the upper levels of the atmosphere which will lead to some hazy looking skies with not much impact expected near the surface.
HRRR model smoke forecast through 7 PM Thursday.
A strong upper-level low/trough covered the northeast U.S. today while an upper-level ridge was over the Northern Plains.
Temperatures near the trough were only in the upper 30s, 40s and 50s this afternoon over parts of eastern Canada into Maine, while near the upper ridge temperatures were in the 90s across parts of the Dakotas this afternoon.
The Northland is in between the ridge and trough with a seasonably cool northerly flow in the upper levels of the atmosphere.
Showers and thunderstorms are occurring farther to the west in the warmer and more humid/unstable air mass which was over the Dakotas and western Minnesota today.
A humid air mass covered areas from Manitoba to southwest Minnesota this afternoon with dew points in the 60s to around 70 degrees, while a very dry air mass was in place farther to the east with dew points only in the 30s this afternoon.
As mentioned above we’ve been seeing clusters of showers and thunderstorms move south/southeast through parts of North Dakota and northwest and west central Minnesota today, but this rain won’t be impacting northeast Minnesota or northwest Wisconsin tonight as those areas are too deep into the dry/stable and cooler air.
Radar loop ending 4:45 PM Wednesday, June 7, 2023.
Goes-16 sandwich satellite loop from Wednesday, June 7, 2023 (loop time ends 4:31 PM CT)
Thunderstorms show up in the yellow and orange areas on the animation below.
Tim