Hottest day of 2023 in store for Twin Cities

Summer's sizzle is about to take hold of the Twin Cities, with temperatures reaching the mid-90s on the doorstep.

The first hint came Sunday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), when the afternoon high was forecast to reach 89 degrees under mostly sunny skies and a light breeze.

By early afternoon, at the newly resurrected Taste of Minnesota festival on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, the temperature was 85. The sunshine made it feel even warmer, so much so that thousands of attendees were using the shade of skyscrapers as protection from the heat, said spokesman Blois Olson.

"I think these are the kinds of days we remember in January," Olson said of the free event, for which 60,000 passes were distributed. "People are excited to be here. It's busy, and we expect thousands of people over the course of the day."

As a precaution, Olson said monitors were out walking the Taste area to keep an eye out for anyone struggling with the higher temperatures. A bevy of beverage vendors helped keep the lines shorter for something cool to drink, he said.

On Monday, the heat is expected to dial up a notch with an anticipated afternoon high of 95, the NWS said.

"Dew points will be moist but not oppressive" on Monday, according to an NWS forecast posted Sunday morning, "so heat indices shouldn't be too much hotter than the air temp."

There's also no indication of smoky conditions adding to the discomfort as has been experienced in recent weeks in the Twin Cities, thanks to wildfires hundreds of miles away in Canada.

While 95 would fall far short of the Twin Cities' hottest July 3, when the temperature touched 100 in 1990, we should be in store for our hottest day yet this year. The weather service said we've warmed up to 92 degrees four times in 2023: June 4, 21, 22 and 23.

A chance of thunderstorms Monday night and again on Tuesday — the July 4th holiday — is expected to pull the mercury down a fair bit to a high topping out at 88.

From there, conditions are expected to cool down even more. High temperatures Wednesday and Thursday should peak at no more than 77 degrees, the weather service said.