Heat the main story this weekend and early next week

Happy Saturday southeastern Minnesota and northern Iowa! It’s a warmer one out there today, with temperatures in the low 80F’s, with dew points climbing into the upper 60F’s.

The next several days looks relatively quiet in terms of storm chances. We will have a few slight chances here and there, but nothing to cancel any plans or write home about. The first of these chances arrives tonight, but model guidance has backed down on these chances, and I personally don’t see much of a mechanism to get any storms to fire locally. Therefore, most of the viewing area will likely be dry this week.

It’s the warmth and the humidity that is going to become an issue Sunday. Heat Advisories will be going into effect 1PM CDT Sunday, and will last through at least 8PM CDT Sunday. The National Weather Service may extend this advisory into Monday given current trends.

We’ll have plenty of sunshine this weekend, with a few clouds from time to time. Cloud cover will depend on upstream thunderstorm activity to our west and north that is expected to diminish long before reaching the Weather First area.

The heat and humidity will continue into Monday as a ridge of high pressure continues to pass overhead. High temperatures are likely to reach 90F for most of the area with dew points in the 70F’s. There will once again be a slight storm chance, especially toward the evening and overnight hours. Some storms may be severe, but odds of any storm activity remain rather low.

Heat and humidity decrease slightly Tuesday, but it will still be a very warm and humid day, with highs in the mid 80F’s, and soupy dew points.

We cool down toward middle of next week, with more widespread storm chances arriving by Thursday. Until then, dangerous heat is expected to be the main concern. Practicing heat safety will be very important in the coming days. Tune in to keep up to date on the heat and storm chances the next few days!