Cold front passing through, cooler for Sunday

You can easily spot a cold front on satellite and radar tracking into the Weather First area as we head into the late afternoon hours. This cold front will bring a noticeable change in temperatures across our area for Sunday, and may potentially usher in our first frost of the season Sunday night.

A cold front will track across southeastern Minnesota and northern Iowa over the next few hours. Most, if not all, of our area will remain dry due to very dry air at the surface. Winds will shift from the south to the northwest as the front passes through, which will begin to transport much cooler air into our area tonight and into Sunday.

Any clouds that are around this evening will decrease in coverage heading into the overnight hours, with winds remaining relatively breezy out of the northwest at around 10 to 20 mph. Overnight lows will drop into the mid to upper 40F’s for all of the viewing area.

Sunday will be noticeably cooler, with strong northwest winds of around 20 to 30 mph, gusting up to 35 mph at times. These strong winds will continue to bring in cooler air down from Canada. This will only allowing high temperatures to reach into the low to mid 60F’s Sunday afternoon. It will also be very dry, with dew points in the mid to upper 30F’s.

We’ll have plenty of sunshine Sunday, with a few afternoon stratocumulus clouds mixed in, giving way to clear skies Sunday night. High pressure builds in from the west, calming the winds as well. These conditions, along with overnight lows dropping into the mid to upper 30F’s, may allow for frost to develop Sunday night!

This would be the first frost of the season, which typically arrives much earlier in the fall. Make sure to bring inside or cover any outdoor plants that may be vulnerable to frost and colder temperatures before heading to bed on Sunday!