As northern Minnesotans breathed in smoky air Saturday, the result of wildfires in Manitoba and Ontario in Canada, those to the south cleaned up after Friday's thunderstorms, which brought brief tornado touchdowns and flash floods.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency announced an air quality alert for most of the upper third of the state on Saturday morning, to run through noon Sunday. Locations shrouded in smoky air included Duluth, Ely, International Falls, the entire Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the tribal nations of Red Lake, Fond du Lac and Grand Portage.

In central Minnesota, air quality was good Saturday afternoon, but the MPCA said that may change as smoke drifts to the south, including to the Twin Cities.

Minor damage — downed trees and branches, battered outbuildings and flooded roads, parks and beaches — bore witness to the storms that rolled through south-central Minnesota overnight. Near Byron, Minn., the popular Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo site was closed by flooding, and volunteers were being sought to help with flood cleanup on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Brief tornado touchdowns were reported in Sibley County on Friday evening, battering trees and some outbuildings. No injuries were reported.

Meanwhile, examination of damage patterns indicated that a twister that touched down Thursday night in Wisconsin's Rusk County was an EF0, the National Weather Service said. The 100-yard-wide tornado, which was on the ground for 8 miles and carried maximum wind speeds of 85 miles per hour, downed many trees and caused some structural damage.

Aiding cleanup efforts across the region, calmer, cooler, drier weather moved in Saturday and "perfect summer weather" was expected to prevail for the next couple of days, according to the National Weather Service in Chanhassen.

In the Twin Cities, skies will be mostly sunny Sunday and Monday, with highs in the low 80s. Showers and thunderstorms may return on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, along with high humidity, the NWS said.