According to the US Drought Monitor, nearly 40% of the state is now considered to be in a severe drought, which has increased from 11% last week. Also, nearly 93% of the state is included in a moderate drought (including the Twin Cities), which has increased from 82% last week. Last year at this time, only 5% of the state was in a severe drought and 25% was in a moderate drought.

Take a look at the precipitation deficits around the region and since the beginning of the year, many locations are running several inches below average, including the Twin Cities. Below are a list of cities and their precipitation deficits so far this year and the rank of how dry the January 1st to July 9th has been.

Minneapolis: -3.65" (50th Driest Start)
St. Cloud: -1.92" (50th Driest Start)
Duluth: -4.40" (22nd Driest Start)
International Falls: -5.26" (12th Driest Start)
Rochester: -6.24" (31st Driest Start)
Fargo: -5.79" (15th Driest Start)
Grand Forks: -4.49" (12th Driest Start)
Sioux Falls: -4.73" (23rd Driest Start)
Madison: -7.78" (17th Driest Start)
Milwaukee: -8.35" (3rd Driest Start)
Minot: -5.86 (3rd Driest Start)
Bismarck: -4.39" (11th Driest Start)
Pierre: -5.97" (10th Driest Start)

Here's the simulated radar and cloud cover for Sunday. Note that much of the day will be dry and sunny with a few clouds across northern and far southeastern Minnesota. Sunday should be a nice mild and sunny day for many across the region.

The weather outlook for the Twin Cities on Sunday shows dry, mild and mostly sunny conditions in place with highs warming into the mid 80s, which will be close to average for mid July.

The meteograms for Minneapolis on Sunday shows temps warming from the mid 60s in the morning to the mid 80s in the afternoon under a mostly sunny sky. Winds will be out of the ENE around 10-15mph through the day.

The weather outlook across the region on Sunday shows fairly decent weather place for many locations. Lingering clouds and showers will be in place across parts of Iowa and southern Wisconsin with mostly sunny, dry and mild weather in place across the rest of the region. In fact, temps across the northern half of the state will warm into the mid/upper 80s to low 90s, which will be nearly +10F above average.

Here's the extended weather outlook from AM Sunday to AM Thursday. The storm that brought a few clouds and showers to the southern half of the state on Saturday will remain to our south on Sunday with dry and mostly sunny weather in place across the Upper Mississippi Valley through Monday. Late Tuesday into Wednesday, another storm system will slide through the region with decent rain chances closer to home.

Here's the rainfall potential through 7PM Monday across the Midwest, which shows the heaviest rains still falling south of Minnesota across the middle Mississippi and Ohio Valley with some 1" to 2" tallies possible.

According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, the 8 to 14 day temperature outlook shows warmer than average temps continuing across much of the western US and across the northern tier of the nation. Meanwhile, areas in the Southern and Southeastern US will be below average.

According to NOAA, in 127 years of record keeping, June 2021 was the hottest on record across the contiguous U.S.. Eight states recorded their hottest June record, while Minnesota saw its 2nd warmest June on record.

It's been a hot summer out there folks and it doesn't appear to ending anytime soon. On Friday, Death Valley, California hit a high temperature of 130 degrees, which is only the 3rd time it's been that hot. It hit 130 on August 16th, 2020 and the all-time record still stands at 134 degrees back in 1934. In case you're wondering, the hottest temperature ever recorded in the Twin Cities was 108 degrees on July 14th, 1936. Uffda!

I've got my fingers, toes and eyes crossed that get some actual rain. Lawns and gardens need it as drought continues to slowly expand across the state.

SUNDAY: Warm sunshine returns. Winds: NE 7-12. High: 84.

SATURDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy and quiet. Winds: ENE 5-10. Low: 62.

MONDAY: More sun. Few showers Far SE MN. Winds: ENE 5-10. High: 83.

TUESDAY: Dry start. Isolated late day rumble? Winds: WSW 5-10. Wake-up: 64. High: 86.

THURSDAY: Lingering AM shower. More PM sunshine. Winds: N 5. Wake-up: 66. High: 86.

FRIDAY: Mostly dry and heating up. Winds: SE 5-10. Wake-up: 65. High: 88.

SATURDAY: Hot sunshine continues. Winds: E 5-10. Wake-up: 66. High: 87.

July 11th

1903: The temperature plummets down to 26 at Leech Lake Dam.

Average High: 84F (Record: 106F set in 1936)

Average Low: 64F (Record: 49F set in 1945)

Record Rainfall: 3.75" set in 1909

Record Snowfall: 0.00"

July 11th

Sunset: 8:59pm

Hours of Daylight: ~15 hours & 22 minutes

Daylight LOST since yesterday: ~ 1 minute & 23 seconds

Daylight LOST since Summer Solstice (June 20th): ~15 Minutes

2.2 Days Since New Moon

Venus and Mars orbit the sun on either side of Earth. But, in the July evening sky, Venus outshines Mars by about 200 times. So you might look west after sunset now … and overlook Mars at first. Watch for Mars. It's in conjunction with Venus this month. The exact time of the conjunction is July 13, 2021, at about 7 UTC. At that time, Venus will pass 1/2 degree north of Mars on our sky's dome, or about one moon-diameter. Do you have binoculars? Any ordinary binoculars will show Venus and Mars in the same field of view at their closest. Depending on where you live worldwide, Venus and Mars will be closest together in the evening sky on July 12 or July 13.

See more from Earth Sky HERE:

The weather outlook on Sunday shows cooler temps across parts of the Central US, where temps will be nearly -5F to -10F below average. Meanwhile folks in the Western US will be running above average once again with dangerous and record heat possible.

The national weather outlook through the weekend shows a fairly potent storm system sliding into the Central US with widespread showers and storms, some of which could be strong to severe with heavy rains and flash flood potential.

According to NOAA's Weather Prediction Center areas of heavy rainfall will be possible across parts of the Central US. Note that some +4" tallies maybe possible in the heartland of America. There also appears to be some decent monsoon moisture possible across parts of Arizona and New Mexico.

See more from The Washington Post HERE:

"Western states are bracing for more scorching weather this weekend after the hottest month of June on record in the United States killed scores of people, strained electric grids and depleted reservoirs. The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning for much of the West through Monday evening, predicting "dangerously hot conditions" including temperatures up to 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54 degrees Celsius) in Death Valley, California. Temperatures are expected to soar above 100 degrees F (40 degrees C) in multiple states. "Long standing record high temperature values are likely to be rivaled or broken," the weather service said, warning of the elevated risk of heat-related illnesses. The extended heatwave, which coincides with a record-setting drought, has already killed at least 116 people in Oregon alone, the state medical examiner said. The extremes in the Pacific Northwest would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change, according to a study by World Weather Attribution, a collaboration of climate scientists around the world."

See more from US News HERE:

"Narwhal tusks record decades of environmental information and clearly show a changing Arctic, researchers reported in Current Biology. Every year the spiraling tusks grow another layer, incorporating variants of carbon and nitrogen called isotopes and some of the mercury a narwhal consumes. The researchers bought 10 tusks from Inuit subsistence hunters in northwestern Greenland and found that the objects contained nearly 50 years' worth of information. Having access to such a long stretch of data "was just an amazing step forward in our understanding of the factors that affect things like diet and mercury [levels]," says lead author and McGill University marine biologist Jean-Pierre Desforges. The researchers sliced open the whale tusks (which are actually teeth, made of dentine), ground parts of them into powder and analyzed the samples' isotope content. The results indicate where and what a narwhal might have eaten, as well as its exposure to mercury—a potent toxin whose accumulation affects animals' immune and reproductive systems."

See more from Scientific American HERE: