Bloomington, Minnesota 7 Day Weather Forecast

Wx Forecast - Wx Discussion - Wx Aviation

339
FXUS63 KMPX 192238
AFDMPX

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN
538 PM CDT Thu Mar 19 2026

.KEY MESSAGES...

- Temperatures well above normal through Saturday.

- Snow melt will continue. Most locations should lose their
  snow cover over the next 24 to 48 hours.

- Quiet weather expected throughout the next week, except for a
  chance for light isolated rain showers along a cold front
  Sunday PM.

&&

.DISCUSSION...
Issued at 1109 AM CDT Thu Mar 19 2026

Another pleasant mid-March day has played out across the region.
Lingering areas of dense fog were slow to burn off along the
Minnesota River valley this morning yet there hasn`t been a
significant impact on temperatures so far. Highs have been
increased to match observational trends & should end up in the
upper 40s to mid 50s in the Twin Cities, E MN, and W WI. The one
area to watch is our W MN counties that are a trailing behind
the forecast due to that lingering fog... but mid 50s are
already present just SW of the fog bank. Winds turn to the SE
and increase this afternoon. Mostly sunny skies will give way to
broken mid-level deck building in from the Dakotas late this
afternoon and evening. Temperatures cool this evening and lows
will be in the 30s. Our fog chances tonight into Friday are much
less than they were this morning. Guidance keeps a light wind
present across the region and cloud cover should prevent
temperatures from cooling down to the Td. This present a less
favorable environment for fog development Friday morning.

Friday & Saturday will continue to warm. Our snow pack will
continue to melt and lose influence over the temperatures.
Friday with highs in the 50s and 60s but it will likely remain
mostly cloudy. Saturday will be the peak of the warm up as a
thermal ridge moves through during the daytime. There is higher
confidence than yesterday given the melt rate of our snow pack &
better agreement among guidance for our high temperatures to
push well into the 60s on Saturday. Highs should top out near 70
in the Twin Cities while mid to upper 70s are possible in SW
MN. The NBM has done a reasonable job "catching up" to the
warmer trend on Saturday. The 925mb temperatures forecast on
Saturday continue to impress with values in the +18 to +22C
range on the ECMWF. That`s big time warmth and it wouldn`t shock
me to see temperatures push 80 in extreme S/SW MN Saturday
afternoon.

Cooler temperatures arrive Sunday behind a cold front. Guidance
highlights a slight chance of showers that are associated with
the frontal passage Sunday. Any precipitation should be light
based on forecast soundings showing rather meager forcing tied
to it. Looking ahead to next week, we`ll remain dry with
seasonable temperatures. The culprit continues to be the
impressive upper level ridge over the SW CONUS. This ridging
will dominate the pattern across the western half of the country
through next week. This will keep the storm track off to our
north and our temperatures rather pleasant.

&&

.AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z FRIDAY/...
Issued at 514 PM CDT Thu Mar 19 2026

VFR to start for all sites and VFR expected to prevail for all
sites. Signals for fog are not nearly as good coming up tonight
as they were last night, and with winds expected to remain in
the 5-10kt range while also veering from SW to NW through the
period, have opted to leave fog mention out of this TAF set.
Passing high clouds of varying coverage is all that is expected.
Only complication is a period of strong winds aloft this
evening, mainly over central-eastern MN into western WI,
sufficient enough to produce LLWS conditions for most sites.

KMSP...LLWS conditions look most likely from around sunset into
the early morning hours before abating. No other issues
expected.

/OUTLOOK FOR KMSP/
SAT...VFR. Wind SE to SW 5-10kts.
SUN...VFR, chc -SHRA/MVFR late. Wind N 10-15kts.
MON...VFR. Wind SW to S 5-10kts.

&&

.MPX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
MN...None.
WI...None.

&&

$$

DISCUSSION...BPH
AVIATION...JPC