Much-needed rain across the Twin Cities and parts of central Minnesota brought little relief Wednesday from high heat and humidity as it dragged into Thursday.
The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for the Twin Cities metro and Mankato areas for "dangerously hot conditions" starting at noon Thursday, with temperatures and humidity expected to combine to make it feel like 105 degrees.
A heat advisory also remained in effect until 8 p.m. Thursday from the South Dakota border near Madison, Minn., to Willmar to the Twin Cities and into St. Croix and Pierce counties in Wisconsin. Faribault, Redwood Falls, Mankato and Red Wing are included in the advisory area, which covers 25 counties where the heat index is expected to reach 100 degrees.
"Little cooling relief is expected overnight," the National Weather Service said on Wednesday.
Minnesota has, for the most part, avoided the extreme heat that baked much of the southern United States this month. While Arizona has shattered records for consecutive days above 110 degrees, and parts of Texas, Florida and even the Midwest have been engulfed by the heat wave, July temperatures in Minnesota have remained just about normal, said Peter Boulay, a state climatologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
"The main heat dome is not centered over us — it's in the Southwest," he said. "We've been on the edge of the heat, riding the edge of it. So we've been getting some heat. We'll probably end the month, not a lot, but a little above normal."
Thursday is expected to mark the seventh day that temperatures in Minneapolis and St. Paul rose above 90 degrees this month. That typically happens five or six times in an average July. After a high of 95 degrees Thursday, temperatures are expected to drop back into the 80s Friday through Sunday.
"There's a reason why people come here to escape heat in the South," Boulay said. "It's going to be a hot next couple days, but it is good to be in Minnesota.