We're off to a sunny start Monday after a cool and blustery weekend in Minnesota. As Minnesotans start to make plans for the July 4th weekend, WCCO Meteorologist Paul Douglas says there's some bad news on the horizon if you have outdoor plans or are heading to the lake.
The weather forecast looks wet. Rinse, repeat after a very wet stretch of weather brought major flooding concerns to the state in May and June. Douglas says the unsettled weather is going to continue and that won't help flood conditions that had begun to ease some .
That wet weather kicks back in on Monday night Douglas told Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News .
"I think dry weather persisting through the dinner hour," says Douglas. "After about 5:00, 6:00 p.m. all bets are off. More showers and storms. I'm shocked more showers and storms tonight spilling over into first thing tomorrow, about a half an inch, maybe an inch of rain in a few spots tonight."
Then we dry out Wednesday.
"Wednesday may be the only dry day this week and then back into the soup," Douglas says. "There will be some thunderstorms, big surprise, for the Fourth of July later in the day. It's ripe for a few storms. I don't think it's going to be an all day wash out. In fact, I think most of Thursday is dry, but can I guarantee there won't be storms Thursday night? No, I cannot guarantee that.
As for Friday, there will be a few storms lingering, along with just some gusty winds and an unusually cool July day.
"Low 70s with a stiff breeze and a few showers Friday, probably the worst day of the bunch," according to Douglas. "I think we salvage a half decent, B-minus weekend. There will be some showers and storms flaring up late in the day Saturday and again late Sunday, most of the time dry. But yeah, par for the course for the fourth of July weekend, which not surprisingly is historically, our wettest holiday of the entire year."
The rain is just more of the same in Minnesota. Douglas says this has been the wettest April through June on record, slightly wetter than 2014.
"It's amazing how quickly we went from a drought scenario to a flood scenario, but it can always be worse," Douglas says referencing Hurricane Beryl which began pounding the southeast Caribbean on Monday as a powerful Category 4 storm.
"This thing has winds of 130, it's typical for September the first, not July the first," Douglas explained. "The intensity, how quickly it spun up into a Category 4. Strongest Atlantic hurricane ever observed this early in the season after becoming the earliest storm of that strength to form in the Atlantic, fueled by record warm waters."
The storm was expected to make landfall in the Windward Islands late Monday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center.
"It's gonna be a long season for folks in the path of hurricanes," Douglas said.
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