Thief River Falls, MN 56701 Weather

Pennington County6:21 PM CDT48.12°N, 96.18°W

Current conditions

Chance Rain Showers
69°
Chance Rain Showers
Feels like 69°
High 74° Friday·Low 55° tonight
WindSSE 8 mph gusts 17 mph
Humidity51%
Dew point50°
Cloud cover27%
UV index0 Low
Sunrise7:55 AM
Sunset6:25 PM

Forecast for this hour (no station report in the last two hours)

Forecast

10-day

  • Tonight

    Partly cloudy. Low around 55, with temperatures rising to around 57 overnight. South southeast wind around 12 mph.

  • Friday

    A slight chance of thunderstorms and a slight chance of rain between 4pm and 5pm, then a chance of rain and a slight chance of thunderstorms. Mostly sunny. High near 74, with temperatures falling to around 72 in the afternoon. South southeast wind 10 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

  • Friday Night

    A slight chance of thunderstorms and a slight chance of rain before 9pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 55. South southeast wind around 25 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

National Weather Service forecast updated 6 hrs ago.

Hourly

Hourly forecast
  1. Now Chance Rain Showers 69°10%
  2. 7 PM Chance Rain Showers 64°11%
  3. 8 PM Partly Cloudy 61°
  4. 9 PM Chance Rain Showers 59°11%
  5. 10 PM Partly Cloudy 57°
  6. 11 PM Partly Cloudy 57°
  7. Fri12 AM Chance Rain Showers 57°11%
  8. 1 AM Chance Rain Showers 57°11%
  9. 2 AM Chance Rain Showers 57°11%
  10. 3 AM Partly Cloudy 57°
  11. 4 AM Partly Cloudy 56°
  12. 5 AM Partly Cloudy 56°
  13. 6 AM Mostly Sunny 56°
  14. 7 AM Mostly Sunny 56°
  15. 8 AM Mostly Sunny 55°
  16. 9 AM Mostly Sunny 57°
  17. 10 AM Mostly Sunny 62°
  18. 11 AM Mostly Sunny 66°
  19. 12 PM Mostly Sunny 71°
  20. 1 PM Mostly Sunny 71°
  21. 2 PM Partly Sunny 73°
  22. 3 PM Mostly Cloudy 74°10%
  23. 4 PM Slight Chance T-storms 72°17%
  24. 5 PM Chance Light Rain 72°39%

10-day forecast

Details
  1. TodayOct 22 Sunny Sunny55°71°
  2. FriOct 23 Mostly Sunny then Slight Chance T-storms Mostly Sunny then Slight Chance T-storms39%55°74°
  3. SatOct 24 Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny30°62°
  4. SunOct 25 Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny28°45°
  5. MonOct 26 Partly Sunny Partly Sunny12%28°44°
  6. TueOct 27 Partly Sunny Partly Sunny19%34°46°
  7. WedOct 28 Slight Chance Light Rain Slight Chance Light Rain24%34°50°
  8. ThuOct 29 Cloudy Cloudy29°37°
  9. FriOct 30 Sunny Sunny29°47°
  10. SatOct 31 Cloudy Cloudy36°45°

Days after the National Weather Service's seven are MET Norway's outlook, a computer model with no forecaster's review.

Radar

Full map
Open the National Weather Service radar (the map here needs JavaScript).

Weather news in Minnesota

More weather news

Air quality

47
Good
Ozone

Air quality is satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk.

Forecast

  • ThuGood (50)
  • FriGood (39)
  • SatGood

Northwestern Minnesota, MN reporting area · 1 hr ago. Data from AirNow (EPA and its state, local and tribal partners); preliminary and subject to change.

Sun & moon

Sunrise 7:55 AM
Sunset 6:25 PM
Daylight 10 h 29 min (−3 min 20 s tomorrow)
Waxing Gibbous · 88% lit
Moonrise 4:43 PM Moonset 3:44 AM
Full moon Oct 26 New moon Nov 9

Almanac

Monthly
Record high73° (1963)
Record low11° (1913)
Wettest0.97 in (1918)
Month to date0.05 in (normal 0.00 in)

Thief River Falls Municipal Ap, records since 1903. Normals 1991–2020. Data from NOAA's Regional Climate Centers (ACIS).

Nearby

Forecasters' discussion

From the National Weather Service office in FGF, issued 2 hrs ago

Key Messages

- Well above average temperatures Thursday and Friday, followed by near average temperatures this weekend into next week.

- There is a medium chance for scattered weak thunderstorms Friday afternoon. Main hazard would be lightning.

Discussion

Issued at 342 PM CDT Thu Oct 22 2026

...Synopsis...

Blocked upper ridging remains over the central CONUS, with upper troughing over the West Coast. This upper ridging is driving well above average temperatures in the 70s currently over the region. Weak embedded impulse moving through the flow is utilizing weak instability aloft, helping spark scattered rain/virga showers in northeast ND and northwest MN this afternoon into evening. Dry air in the lower levels will prevent much of this precipitation from reaching the ground, thus added sprinkles to the forecast to account for this.

On Friday, well above average temperatures will occur once more with widespread 70s forecast during the day. While temperatures will be mild, gusty southerly winds 20-40 mph will also build starting Friday by late morning, lasting through the day.

Upper trough in the West will attempt to break eastward, although all guidance suggests this will occur in a split-flow- like regime, with the northern branch of the upper trough in northern CONUS and Canada separating from the southern branch lingering in the Southwest. As it does this, it brings sufficient moisture and lift to bring scattered showers Friday afternoon into evening. Most guidance also indicates at sufficient instability aloft to bring lightning/thunderstorms into the conversation. A lack of better instability, moisture, and wind shear spacing will mitigate how strong thunderstorms will be - likely keeping storms weak.

Strong cold front moves through Friday night into Saturday driven by the northern branch of the upper trough. This ends our well above average temperatures, with most locations seeing daily high temperatures Saturday occur just ahead of this cold front, occurring early morning Saturday.

Aviation

Issued at 342 PM CDT Thu Oct 22 2026

Medium to high confidence in VFR conditions throughout the TAF period. Winds are forecast to remain out of the south to southeast generally around 5-10kt before 12Z. After 12Z, winds increase 15-25kt, gusting near 30kt in southeast ND and west- central MN, including KFAR, particularly late in the morning through afternoon. There is a medium chance winds reach 30kt at KGFK as well during this same timeframe.

Virga/light rain showers are forecast this afternoon into tonight in northeast ND and northwest MN. Additionally, there is a low to medium chance for showers and weak thunderstorms are Friday afternoon into early evening in portions of the Red River Valley into Minnesota. Confidence is not high enough to include this in any TAFs at this time (PoPs around 20 percent).

One note on observations at airport sites - reduced visibility and HZ reported at some TAF sites are likely resultant from nearby agricultural activity kicking up dust and dirt. Because of this, we are opting to not include within TAFs.

Fgf Watches

ND...None. MN...None.

Forecasts, observations and alerts in the United States come from the National Weather Service (NOAA); radar from NOAA's Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor system; satellite imagery from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) and NOAA's GOES satellites; the map from the U.S. Geological Survey's National Map; air quality from AirNow (EPA and its partners); hurricane information from the National Hurricane Center; climate normals and records from NOAA's Regional Climate Centers (ACIS). Forecasts outside the United States and the UV index: MET Norway (CC BY 4.0); observations outside the U.S.: airport reports via NOAA's Aviation Weather Center. Place names: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Data are copied on a schedule and may lag the sources; for warnings that affect your safety, follow your local National Weather Service office and emergency officials. Weather news is drawn from the 4Search index and reflects what the press published. Terms of use.