Minnesota State Fair winning forecast
If you could order up your ideal weather for the opening day of the Minnesota State Fair, it would probably look much like today's sun-splashed 70s. Humidity will also be low today, and westerly breezes will be moderate.
I'd call that a blue-ribbon forecast!
We'll share our 70s with much of Minnesota this afternoon:
Parts of northern Minnesota will see highs in the 60s today.
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All of Minnesota should see highs in the 70s tomorrow, as a high pressure system spreads across the upper Midwest:
The last couple of frames in the loop show some showers and scattered thunderstorms that arrive late Friday night and linger through Saturday.
Iowa river levels
Some rivers in northeastern Iowa saw record levels yesterday, due to the torrential rains that fell Tuesday night. Many of those rivers are now showing significant lowering.
Several northeastern Iowa rivers remain in major flood stage, as indicated by the purple symbols on NOAA's Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service site :
The Upper Iowa River at Dorchester has dropped about 2 feet since setting a new record crest level yesterday, but it is still at major flood stage:
A drop to minor flood stage is expected by tomorrow morning.
The Turkey River at Spillville has dropped almost 5 feet since setting a new record crest level yesterday, but it is also still at major flood stage:
Additional rain is not expected in northeastern Iowa today through tomorrow, but showers and thunderstorms could return tomorrow night and linger into Saturday.
Let's hope that significant rains avoid northeastern Iowa this weekend.
Tropical update
The National Hurricane Center is watching a low pressure center that is just southeast of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The NHC estimates an 80% chance that this will develop into a tropical cyclone sometime in the next 5 days:
The area of low pressure will continue moving west-northwestward over the next few days. It could approach south Florida in a few days, possibly as a tropical storm. If it passes into the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico early next week, it could become a hurricane.
The National Hurricane Center posts frequent tropical weather updates.
Floridians will be closely monitoring the development of this potential tropical storm/hurricane over the next few days!