Friday Evening Northland Forecast: 7/18/2025
A Sunny and Smoky Weekend
Our summer of discontent with the smoke from distant fires continues. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has issued a plethora of air quality alerts for this coming weekend, from Saturday at 1pm til Monday morning at 9am. Those hours are subject to change. Last weekend, they ended up extending some alerts until 11pm Monday night. But for now, the entire state of Minnesota is included in the notification from the MPCA. Basically, the southern third of Minnesota is fine. The middle third of the state is in the Orange Alert, which means the air quality can be bad for some sensitive folks with pre-existing conditions. Most of the northern third of the state is in the Purple category, which is very unhealthy for everybody. The far northwestern part of the state, and the far southern part of St Louis County (and Carlton County) are in the Red Alert zone, which means the air is unhealthy.
Keep in mind, it’s not like people will just stay indoors with their doors locked and their curtains closed all weekend. We still go live our lives. But, it might be a good idea to not run a marathon this weekend, and don’t plan a 50 mile bike ride. I’m not even going to mow my lawn this weekend. It can wait til next week. So, use your head, and you’ll be fine. But, you will probably feel the effects of the smoke this weekend. The first thing I notice, is that my eyes feel scratchy. And, my nose seems to be runny, too. You may notice these symptoms, and more. Just kind of take it easy this weekend. It will all be better by Monday.
As for the weather, it will actually be a pretty nice weekend, if you can ignore the smoke. After some fog Saturday morning, the rest of the weekend will be mostly sunny, with highs in the mid 70s. Next week, it will be partly sunny, with chances for afternoon showers on Monday and Tuesday. Temps will rise, with a high of 80 by Tuesday. Assuming we get rid of this smoke, Wednesday thru Friday should be mostly sunny, with highs around 80, and lows around 60.
So, have a relaxing weekend. Use some common sense, and you’ll do fine. Might be a good weekend for indoor activities, like watching the Twins or Brewers on TV. Yeah, play ball!
FOX 21 Meteorologist Karl Spring
