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269
FXUS63 KMPX 162026
AFDMPX

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN
326 PM CDT Wed Aug 16 2017

.SHORT TERM...(This evening through Thursday)
Issued at 323 PM CDT Wed Aug 16 2017

Confidence is increasing on a heavy rain event impacting west
central into central MN tonight. The culprit is a seasonably strong
system currently down near Sioux City, IA. Models are in good
agreement on this low deepening to around 998 mb over southern MN
tonight. With a deepening system, the dynamics with this are strong,
which explains the shield of baroclinically induced precipitation
across eastern SD/western MN. The surface low is expected to track
into the Twin Cities by Thursday morning. Just to the west of the
surface low, near the h7 low track, a prolonged precipitation event,
which actually started late this morning, will continue through
tonight. Given pwats nearing 2", have high confidence in some
impressive rainfall amounts in western MN. Right now, both us and
WPC have a swatch of 2-3" of rain through tonight from a little west
of New Ulm back to Madison and up to between Alexandria and Mille
Lacs lake in central MN. Within this band of 2-3 inches, there is
high confidence in a band of 4-6" falling. Based on where rainfall
has tracked today, think the ECMWF bullseye is pretty close to where
the observed 4-6" area will be, which is around Willmar. Adding to
the confidence in seeing these higher amounts is the fact that last
night, widespread 5-7" amounts were seen in eastern Nebraska, so
this system has a history of overachieving in the rainfall
department.

What also needs to be watched is the severe threat this afternoon.
SPC mesoanalysis shows nearly 2000 j/kg of sbCAPE down in southeast
MN where we have seen Albert Lea pop up to 81 with a dewpoint of 73.
There is a warm front lifting north across Iowa, with winds backed
pretty good to the east across southern MN. CAPE profiles are
skinny, so we are not expecting really strong updrafts, but given
the low level shear/helicity with the modest instability, there is
potential to see some low topped supercells with a tornado threat.
The SPC has this threat highlighted with the tornado threat in the
Day1 convective outlook.

With the low deepening, we did boost winds on the back side of the
low quite a bit for Thursday, with gusts around 25 mph expected in
our typical windy spots from western into southern MN. Also slowed
down the clearing trend and drying of pops from west to east as
well. Given the expected cloud cover, also knocked highs down
several degrees, with 70 likely being a tough number to achieve from
eastern MN into western WI Thursday.

.HYDROLOGY...
Issued at 323 PM CDT Wed Aug 16 2017

Although we are expecting some healthy rainfall amounts in western
MN, no flood watches were planned for a couple of reasons. First,
this part of our area (out around Redwood Falls/Willmar) is not a
flashy area to begin with. This region also has some lingering
effects from drier conditions this summer (D0 on the drought
monitor). Finally, though we may see 4-6" of rain, we`ll see that 4-
6" over a 12-18 hour period. All of this adds up to not needing any
watches or flood products at this point.

&&

.LONG TERM...(Thursday night through Wednesday)
Issued at 323 PM CDT Wed Aug 16 2017

The main topics of discussion in the long term are a quick moving
disturbance that could bring scattered showers and thunderstorms
through Friday afternoon and evening.  The weekend will bring warmer
temperatures than we`ve seen recently, followed by a frontal
boundary that will slowly move through Monday-Tuesday.  This front
could bring thunderstorms and heavy rain to the area.

By tomorrow evening, skies will continue clearing from west to east
as today`s system continues pushing eastward through the Great Lakes
region.  But the clearing skies will be short lived as clouds
increase again from west to east Friday as a shortwave moves in from
our northwest, embedded in the longwave trough.  This wave will be
progressive, but LI`s do become negative ahead of the wave, so some
thunder activity is possible.  It does look like a weak dry line
with this coming into western MN, providing a potential focus for
thunderstorms.  Severe weather potential is rather low as indicated
by the marginal risk issued by the SPC.

High pressure moves in behind this wave and winds will become
southerly.  Hence, temperatures are expected to increase into the
low to mid 80s Saturday and Sunday.

The guidance is in decent agreement that a frontal boundary will
slowly move in from our north Sunday night into Monday, which will
bring our next chance of widespread showers and thunderstorms.  This
front looks to slowly sag south through the end of the period, and
it will bare watching as both heavy rainfall and severe weather
could be in play early next week.

&&

.AVIATION...(For the 18Z TAFS through 18Z Thursday afternoon)
Issued at 1255 PM CDT Wed Aug 16 2017

Surface low down by Omaha will deepen overnight as it moves into
southern MN. For us this means heavy rain and low cigs. Short term
models are deeper with the low than models were overnight, which
is slowing down arrival of precip and delayed heaviest precip
(around 00z) an hour or two from previous TAF. With the low moving
over/near STC/MKT/MSP, cigs will get quite low tonight and can`t
argue much with what the LAMP has. With the deepening of the low,
also boosted wind speeds quite a bit for when NW directions arrive
at site.

KMSP...Like the idea of the hrrr, but based on where convection is
now in central IA, think it is to slow in brining storms with
heavy rain into MSP, hence the timing in the current TAF that is a
couple hours ahead of the HRRR. Surface low looks like it will
nearly go overhead tomorrow morning so have high confidence in IFR
cigs being in place for the morning push Thursday.

/OUTLOOK FOR KMSP/
Fri...VFR. Chance afternoon/evening TSRA. Wind W 5 kts.
Sat...VFR. Wind W 5 kts.
Sun...VFR. Chance afternoon/evening TSRA. Wind S 5-10 kts.


&&

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

$$

SHORT TERM...MPG
LONG TERM...SPD
AVIATION...MPG
HYDROLOGY...MPG