000
FXUS63 KDLH 260512
AFDDLH

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Duluth MN
1212 AM CDT Wed Jul 26 2017

.SHORT TERM...(This evening through Wednesday)
Issued at 334 PM CDT Tue Jul 25 2017

Showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop along and ahead of
a cold front tonight across portions of east central Minnesota into
northwest Wisconsin, some of which could be strong to severe.
Precipitation may linger into Wednesday morning as the cold front
exits northwest Wisconsin with skies clearing out in the wake of the
front Wednesday afternoon. For areas of north-central Minnesota into
portions of northeast MN - areas such as the Brainerd Lakes, Iron
Range, and points north - the overall chance for precipitation is
low tonight with decreasing overnight. Highs today and tomorrow
seasonable in the mid 70s to low 80s, with lows tonight falling to
the mid/upper 50s where skies clear out, mid 60s under the clouds in
east-central MN and northwest Wisconsin.

On the synoptic scale a mid-level low over central Manitoba will
track east into northwest Ontario tonight with a resulting surface
low to its northeast near Hudson Bay. Extending from this low is a
cold front extended all the way south into the eastern Great Plains.
A warm sector ahead of this cold front is across the Upper Midwest
today, and as expected much of the region is draped within stratus
limiting surface heating. A few showers and storms have developed at
times through the morning and afternoon along the warm front
tracking east into northwest Wisconsin, but these have remained sub-
severe with just a few storms capable of producing small hail. In
addition, along the international border region a few storms have
developed at times along the cold front, but these storms have been
short-lived.

The cold front will track east across the region tonight into
Wednesday. In the warm sector elevated instability is an 1500-2000
j/kg over northern Minnesota, approaching 3000-4000 j/kg in eastern
South Dakota and southwestern Minnesota. It is in this area towards
central Minnesota where late-day convection is expected to develop
and spread eastward. While earlier guidance had solutions which
favored some of these storms tracking towards southern parts of the
CWA - areas like the I-35 corridor east across northwest Wisconsin -
models have been trending away from this idea as the deep-layer wind
shear does not seem to be enough to sustain strong to severe storms
this far north. A few strong to severe updrafts cannot be ruled out
given the very impressive mid-level lapse rates advecting in, but
thunderstorms will struggle to sustain themselves given the wind
field. The cold front will sweep east tonight which in addition to
isolated/scattered storms over east-central MN and northwest WI may
result in continued isolated storms developing along the
international border region, but these will likely remain sub-
severe. Given the short-lived storms, damaging winds may be a threat
for a bit this evening as storms collapse, otherwise an isolated
large hail threat will exist through this evening. With precipitable
water values approaching 2" in east-central MN and northwest
Wisconsin, all storms will be producing heavy rain rates which could
lead to minor flooding, though storms should be progressive enough
and isolated to scattered in nature, limiting the possibility of any
flash flooding. Behind the cold front overnight some patchy fog may
develop as skies clear out and temperatures fall.

Wednesday a few showers and storms may continue ahead of the cold
front in northwest Wisconsin during the morning, but by the
afternoon mostly sunny skies should prevail over the Northland. With
diurnal heating some afternoon stratocu is possible along with
northwest winds around 5-10 mph.

.LONG TERM...(Wednesday night through Tuesday)
Issued at 334 PM CDT Tue Jul 25 2017

Wednesday evening a few showers may be lingering over Price county
according to some of the model QPF, but it appears all the forcing
is well to our southeast, and have left the evening forecast dry
with gradually decreasing clouds.

A fairly strong surface ridge builds into the area for Thursday and
Friday, which is expected to bring some cooler temperatures for both
days.  Usually a ridge would bring dry weather as well, but it looks
like we may develop some afternoon showers Thursday and have some
slight chance pops there for the afternoon hours.  Otherwise we are
looking at dry conditions through at least Friday night.

Saturday our ridge shifts off to the east and allows return flow to
set up over the area.  The GFS is bringing a shortwave through the
westerly flow aloft, which is not depicted in the ECMWF which bight
bring showers and thunderstorms into the area as early as Saturday
afternoon.  However, this is day 5 and am not terribly confident in
it, so have kept pops in the slight to low end chance range Saturday
night and Sunday.  Highs push back up into the upper 70s to low 80s
both days.

Early next week we start seeing some significant differences in the
models that affect the forecast area.  The GFS has a strong upper
low over the Hudson bay and more amplified ridge over western North
America than is depicted on the ECMWF.  The GFS solution bring
cooler temperatures and some precipitation chances across the area.
The ECMWF also has some precipitation chances and is warmer than the
GFS, though still below normal. Have low confidence for now, but
have slight chance pops with near to below normal temperatures for
the first half of next week.

&&

.AVIATION...(For the 06Z TAFS through 06Z Wednesday night)
Issued at 1212 AM CDT Wed Jul 26 2017

A frontal boundary will linger across the southern
portions of the Northland overnight, and will be the focus for
showers and thunderstorms. North of the KDLH area, we should
generally see dry conditions with some areas of fog. CIG`s and
VSBY`s will vary considerably overnight, ranging from VFR to IFR
due to fog and also showers and storms. Conditions will quickly
become VFR everywhere on Wednesday.

&&

.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
DLH  62  79  58  76 /  50  10   0  20
INL  57  77  56  79 /  30  10   0   0
BRD  64  80  59  79 /  50  10   0   0
HYR  65  80  58  79 /  90  30   0  10
ASX  65  82  59  76 /  80  20   0  10

&&

.DLH WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
WI...None.
MN...None.
LS...None.
&&

$$

SHORT TERM...JJM
LONG TERM...LE
AVIATION...DAP