Rain likely Monday, turning colder for the second half of the week

Happy Sunday! Skies remained mainly sunny today across southeastern Minnesota and northern Iowa, allowing for temperatures to climb into the 50F’s for nearly everyone! A gorgeous mid-November day!

Skies remain clear tonight, allowing temperatures to drop a bit more than Saturday night, into the low 30F’s for most of the area. Winds will also diminish, resulting in a quite night across the Weather First area.

Things take a dramatic turn as we kick off the workweek Monday. We start out dry during the morning hours with a bit of sun, and breezy southerly winds around 10 to 15 mph, gusting up to 30 mph at times. Temperatures will warm into the low 50F’s before rain rapidly overspreads the area Monday afternoon.

Rain remains likely through most of Monday night, clearing the area by Tuesday mid-morning. Overnight/morning lows will only be in the mid 40F’s due to the cloud cover and rain. The remainder of Tuesday will feature plenty of cloud cover and breezy W winds around 10 to 20 mph, gusting up to 30 mph at times. Highs will still be on the warmer side, in the low to mid 50F’s.

Skies will partially clear Tuesday night behind a strong cold front, allowing temperatures to crash to around freezing by Wednesday morning. Temperatures won’t recover much Wednesday afternoon, given persistent cloud cover and northwest winds gusting up to 30 mph at times.

Will be watching for the potential of a few snow showers across the area Wednesday. Model guidance shows enough moisture wrapping around the backside of the low to certainly kick off a few scattered snow showers, but no major accumulations would result. If any accumulations occur, they would be less than 1″.

Clouds and highs in the 30F’s stick around a majority of the extended forecast, with Thursday being the warmest day with a high of 40F. Friday is the only day that has a fair chance at featuring at least some sunshine before clouds return next weekend. It certainly looks like we will be turning the corner to winter here by the end of this week!