From drought to floods in 24 hours: Paul Douglas has the latest on Minnesota's sudden rain

It was a very wet Thursday with rain hammering most of southern Minnesota. According to WCCO Meteorologist Paul Douglas, we're not done yet either. From drought to near flash flood conditions in one week? Paul says that's exactly what happened.

“What a crazy pattern," Douglas told John Hines on the WCCO Radio Morning News Friday. "Only in Minnesota, can you be ankle deep in muddy water with dust blowing in your face? It's just crazy extremes. We have advisories up north for air quality because of the smoke and those flood warnings have expired. But sure enough, we're getting some crazy amounts of rain.”

The rainfall reports for areas to the south of the metro were very high. 3.5 inches just west of Fairmont, Owatonna over 3 inches of rain, 3.3 inches in Dodge Center, over 2 inches near Rochester according to Paul.

There wasn’t quite as much in the main part of the metro overnight, but Paul says it will be ripe for more heavy thunderstorms through Saturday night.  The weather doesn’t really dry out until Sunday.

There is a possibility of 2 to 4 inches of additional rain possible by the time we get into Sunday however.

Northern Minnesota, where fires continue to burn in and around the Boundary Waters area, is a different story.  They are getting some, but not nearly as much rain as far southern Minnesota.  Some quarter to half inch amounts have been reported, which Paul says helps somewhat.

“I think it's going to help firefighters. There's so much dry tinder, kindling, dry brush up there to ignite. And I think up north it's going to be closer to an inch of rain by Sunday morning. Whereas in the metro it'll be 2 or 3 and maybe as much as 4 inches for southern Minnesota.”

There is still a severe threat in the metro Paul says, with some watches and severe storm warnings possible later on Friday.

The Twins are also back home tonight, and Paul says that could be touch-and-go for getting the game played.

Saturday looks good early, then another squadron of thunderstorms could start up again in the afternoon.

Sunday and Monday dry out with temps in the upper 70s with a drop in humidity too, giving us a whiff of September in the air.  We head back into a wet pattern next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Does this rain alleviate all of Minnesota’s drought concerns?  Not quite, but it’s a great start Paul said.

“Stating the obvious it’s a multimillion dollar rain, especially for southern Minnesota. It can't not help agriculture. Not to say we're erasing all the effects of the drought, but I think by the end of next week we're going to be halfway towards recovering from the drought and frankly that's faster than I thought it would happen.”

Featured Image Photo Credit: (Getty Images / SamWagnerTimelapse)