The weather looks somewhat soggy on Sunday and into Monday with scattered showers and a few thunderstorms working through the region. The good news is that most of the storms will be of garden variety, but there could be a few pockets of locally heavy.

Here's the precipitation potential through Tuesday, which shows areas of heavy rainfall south and east of the Twin Cities, where some +1" tallies can't be ruled out.

Here's the weather outlook for Sunday, which shows mild temps continuing for early May, however, there will be scattered showers and storms across the region, with the heaviest rains possible south and east of the Twin Cities metro.

Here's a closer look at our Sunday weather for Minneapolis. Note that weather conditions will be a little more unsettled during the 2nd half of the day with scattered showers and storms possible.

The meteorgrams for Minneapolis on Sunday show temps warming quickly from the 60s in the morning to the lower 70s into the afternoon. There will be a chance of showers and storms throughout the day with the most widespread storms possible during the 2nd half of the day. Winds will be out of the NE and could gust up close to 15mph in the afternoon.

Here's the extended temperature and weather outlook over the next 5 to 7 days in the Twin Cities. Highs on Sunday will still be warmer than average, but much of next week will be below average with highs hovering around 60F. It might even be a bit cooler by the end of the week and weekend with highs only warming into the upper 50s.

According to the MN DNR, most MN Lakes are going ice out nearly 2 weeks earlier than normal this season. Thanks to warmer than normal temps and wetter than normal conditions, quite a few lakes have been going ice out. Leech Lake went ice out on April 9, while the average ice out is on April 28th. Lake Winnibigoshish went ice out on April 8th, while the average ice out is on April 26th. Lake Ver Milion went ice out on April 15th, while the average ice out is on April 20th. Mille Lacs Lake was deemed ice out as of April 7th, while the average ice out date is on April 25th. Upper & Lower Red Lake were ice out as of early April, while the average ice out is late April.

Here's a look at the average ice out dates across the state. The orange markers across the southern part of the state indicate average ice out dates typically around the last week of March. We typically see average ice out across parts of central Minnesota and around the Twin Cities during the first couple of weeks of April. Folks across the northern third of the state typically see ice out closer to the start of May.

See more from the MN DNR HERE:

If you look close, so of your backyard trees and bushes have actually started to show signs of spring leaves emerging. According to the NPN, this is happening nearly 2 to 3 weeks earlier than normal across Minnesota and Wisconsin.

"How do you know when spring has begun? Is it the appearance of the first tiny leaves on the trees, or the first crocus plants peeping through the snow? The First Leaf and First Bloom Indices are synthetic measures of these early season events in plants, based on recent temperature conditions. These models allow us to track the progression of spring onset across the country. April 27, 2021 - Spring leaf out has arrived in all but the most northern and highest elevation parts of the country. After arriving early in southern parts of Southwest and Southeast states, cold temperatures halted the progress of spring leaf out for several days across the northern part of the Southeast, Southern Great Plains, and mid-Atlantic. Spring leaf out arrived days to weeks early across much of the northern Great Plains, Midwest, and Northeast. Spring bloom has arrived in the southern half of the country. Spring bloom is patchy, with much of Texas days to weeks late, while parts of Kansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana are days to weeks early."

See more from NPN HERE

According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, the 8 to 14 day temperature outlook shows cooler than average temps across the northern tier of the nation, while warmer than average temps will be found across the southern tier of the nation.

Sigh... Hold on, I am still enjoying yesterday's weather.

Saturday's mild sunshine was a spectacle. A reminder of how beautiful the Land of 10,000 Lakes can be when it's not frozen. Don't get me wrong, I love winter, but a blue sky in Minnesota on a warm summery day is chicken soup for the soul.

The average April temperature at the MSP Airport finished pretty close to normal despite a very warm start to the month. We also only had 0.5 inch of snow, which was nearly 2 inches below normal and a far cry from the snowiest April on record of 26 inches back in 2018. No thanks!

Say so long to the 80s for now. Temps cool a bit today with scattered showers and storms possible through the second half of the day. Keep in mind that our average high at this time of the year is in the mid/upper 60s, so temperature readings through the week ahead will be a bit cool for early May.

SUNDAY: Cloudier. PM T-Showers. Winds: ENE 7-12. High: 72.

SUNDAY NIGHT: Slight chance of a T-Shower overnight. Winds: NE 10. Low: 46.

MONDAY: AM showers. Peek of PM sunshine. Winds: NW 10-15. High: 60.

TUESDAY: Brighter skies. Isolated PM sprinkle? Winds: NNW 7-12. Wake-up: 42. High: 60.

WEDNESDAY: Mix of clouds & sun. Few PM showers. Winds: N 5-10. Wake-up: 40. High: 60.

FRIDAY: Mostly sunny and nicer. Winds: N 5-10. Wake-up: 41. High: 61.

SATURDAY: Increasing clouds. Rain overnight. Winds: SE 10-15. Wake-up: 43. High: 58.

May 2nd

2013: A historic snowstorm dumps up to 18 inches of snow in southeast Minnesota and west central Wisconsin. Blooming Prairie receives 18 inches from this storm, and Eau Claire gets 9.3 inches.

May 2nd

Average Low: 44F (Record: 24F set in 1924)

Record Rainfall: 1.49" set in 1944

Record Snowfall: 2.2" set in 1954

May 2nd

Sunrise: 6:00am

Hours of Daylight: ~14 hours & 20 minutes

Daylight GAINED since yesterday: ~ 2 minutes & 41 seconds

Daylight GAINED since Winter Solstice (December 21st): ~ 5 hours & 56 minutes

0.5 Days Before Last Quarter Moon

See more from Space.com HERE:

See more from Earth Sky HERE:

The weather outlook on Sunday shows warmer than average temperatures continuing along and east of the Rockies with temps running nearly +5F to +15F above average. Meanwhile, folks west of the Rockies will be a bit cool for early May with highs running below average.

The weather outlook through 7PM Monday scattered showers and storms moving into the Central US as we head through late weekend / early next week. Some of the storms could be strong to severe with locally heavy rainfall.

The extended precipitation outlook over the next 7 days shows widespread heavy rainfall across the Southern US, where localized flooding can't be ruled out. Meanwhile, much of the Southwest will remain dry.

Here's the extended snowfall outlook into next week, areas of snowfall continuing across the spine of the Rockies.

See more from NY Times HERE:

"OVER TWO SUMMER DAYS IN JUNE 2012, a NASA aircraft called DC-8 daringly flew at a speed of 200 meters per second through deep clouds and threw itself into the eye of a tumultuous thunderstorm. DC-8 undertook this harrowing journey for one primary purpose: to understand lightning's ability to clean Earth's atmosphere. The specific kinds of measurements performed here "are the first-ever in thunderstorms," William H. Brune tells Inverse. Brune is one of the authors of a new study detailing DC-8's findings and a professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University. What the craft found on this intrepid journey could change the course of atmospheric science as we know it. But more immediately, these measurements hold some pretty strange implications for how we can best face the climate crisis."

See more from Inverse HERE:

"Few hobbies are more extreme than storm chasing. It's a seemingly crazy endeavor that pays off with a chance to bask in the raw power of the most powerful and violent storms on Earth. Successful storm chasing demands hardcore data analysis and the wisdom to know what risks to take. Doing it well can yield a chance to experience something magnificent, whether a tornado flanked by a rainbow, or a towering supercell storm that resembles a flying saucer. Slipping up can mean missing the storm or, more seriously, putting yourself in danger. A tornado and a rainbow appeared simultaneously near one Texas town on Friday At its root, storm chasing is as much an art as it is a science, requiring a skill set that gets honed only after years of experience. It blends forecasting and interpretation of the sky with the need for expert navigation. It's a test of endurance and temptation. You want to get close — but not too close. Behind every successful (or unsuccessful) storm chase comes days of planning built on years of past instances of trial and error. For many, seeing a tornado is the ultimate prize, but sculpted clouds, vivid lightning and curtains of rain can also provide quite a show. Here's a timeline of what a "typical" chase looks like and entails — though in the world of storm chasing, there's no such thing as typical."

See more from the Washington Post HERE: