Thursday Evening Northland Forecast: 7/31/2025

One More Smoky Day

With this current bout with dirty smoke from Canadian wildfires, we have one more intolerable day to put up with. The conditions on Friday will be unhealthy for pretty much all of us in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. For that matter, the Air Quality Alert also extends into Iowa, eastern Nebraska, and northern Illinois. There are millions of us sharing the pain. I’d like to think maybe this will be the last round of smoky air this summer, but I’m pretty sure we will have many more on the way, before Autumn. The current alerts go into Friday, and even late on Saturday. By Sunday, we will all be in the clear, at least for now. Go outside and take a deep breath of clean air, sometime Sunday afternoon.

Unlike last weekend, this Saturday and Sunday will be significantly cooler and less humid, with highs in the 70s, and dewpoints in the 40s and 50s. Last weekend, we had highs in the upper 80s and dewpoints in the 70s. That was pretty rough. That’s why I didn’t mow my lawn last weekend. I hope you took it a little easier, too. I’d love to see some good rainfall move into the area, but I just don’t see it in the computer models. There is literally no chance for rain this weekend. The next shot for any kind of rain will be on Monday and Tuesday. And that only offers a 20% chance for rain both days. Until the jetstream changes significantly, we are stuck in a very dry pattern. While that can be enjoyable for summer fun, it’s sure good to get a little rain every 2 or 3 days, too.

So, hang in there for one more stinky day, as August arrives on Friday. By late on Saturday, I think we will all be able to look up, and see a CLEAR blue sky!

FOX 21 Meteorologist Karl Spring