This is the Storm Prediction Center storm outlook for Friday, notice how southern Minnesota is included in the "Slight Risk" area. Temperatures ahead of the approaching cold front will warm well into the 70's to near 80 degrees. The atmosphere will become quite unstable during the afternoon hours on Friday, which will be sufficient for our first, possible, severe weather event of the season. At this point, it appears the heaviest or strongest thunderstorms will stay south of us, but heavy rain will be possible for most of central and southern Minnesota through early weekend. It might be a good idea to get out Thursday, do a little yard work before some much needed rain comes in.

Check here for more: www.spc.noaa.gov

This image is from NOAA's HPC - it shows accumulated rain through Saturday evening. The dark blue coloring indicates 0.50" of rain, where the lighter blue through Wisconsin indicates nearly 1.0" or more. A slow moving cold front will be the focal point for shower and thunderstorm development over the next couple of days. The first round of storms will develop in central Minnesota Thursday night and the second (stronger) batch of storms will develop from northeastern Nebraska, northern Iowa, southern Minnesota and central Wisconsin Friday night through early Saturday. The weekend is looking a little wet, so have a plan B, especially Saturday. It'll be nice to get the rain, but unfortunately, it'll come over the weekend when most of want to be outside to take advantage of 'sublime' weather. Not this weekend...

Check here for more: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/qpf/day1-3.shtml