Thunderstorms, some strong, possible Friday evening

A strong area of low pressure will track across the central United States Friday into Saturday, including Minnesota and Iowa. This low pressure has the capability to bring everything from severe thunderstorms to snow across the area going into the weekend.

Ahead of the approaching low, southerly winds will help transport warmer and more humid air northward across the Mississippi River Valley and vicinity. Resulting high temperatures across southeastern Minnesota and northern Iowa will be in the low to mid 70F’s. While these high temperatures will approach record highs, many locations won’t quite get there, with Austin, MN being the exception.

The warmer temperatures and higher dew points will open the door for severe weather across a large chunk of the Mississippi River Valley, stretching from Louisiana, all the way to the southern Twin Cities metro.

Most of Friday will be dry across our area thanks to a “cap” of warmer air just above the surface, preventing a sufficient amount of rising motion to kick off any showers and thunderstorms. Once the cold front approaches Friday late afternoon and evening, however, this lid will break, allowing for shower and thunderstorm development.

Storms will begin to fire late afternoon/early evening across central Iowa, before tracking across northern Iowa, then eventually into southeastern Minnesota. The big question with these storms is will they hold together into southeastern Minnesota? After the sun sets, instability will begin to decrease, resulting in less energy for storms to take advantage of.

Regardless, some storms could become strong to severe, with damaging winds being the main concern. An isolated brief tornado cannot be ruled out either.

Thunderstorms exit the area late Friday evening, giving way to scattered showers overnight and into Saturday.

Temperatures drop Saturday from the 40F’s down into the 30F’s, allowing for any rain showers leftover Saturday afternoon to turn to snow. Any significant accumulation will be likely limited to western and northwestern Minnesota, with only a dusting along and west of I-35.