Weekend showers to drop 1 to 2 inches of rain on Twin Cities

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - It was a wet and windy to start to Saturday in the Twin Cities. We'll be in and out of some showers Saturday, with some late day storm chances as our temperatures warm a couple of degrees into the 50s. It will also be a bit breezy, with sustained winds of 15 to 20 mph and gusts up to 35 mph.

The rain will slowly taper off on Sunday, but the area will easily pick up one to two inches of rain this weekend.

Tornadoes, softball-sized hail hit Kansas

Severe storms across Kansas produced softball-sized hail and several tornadoes Friday, leaving behind damage and thousands without power.

Several videos from Andover, Kansas, showed at least one of the tornadoes moving through areas populated with businesses and homes. Only minor injuries have been reported at this time.

End of a cold wet April

While no record lows have been broken this month — although we were certainly close on a couple of occasions— the persistence of our cool and showery conditions have led many of us to question why we live here. It's certainly been chilly, but we aren't likely to even slip into the top 10 for coldest Aprils in the Twin Cities.

(FOX 9)

Just four years ago, we experienced one of the coldest on record with more than 2 feet of snow and temperatures more than 5 degrees colder than this year, on average. Just a few years before that, in 2013, it was also a very chilly year with temps similar to this year.

The bright side to our cool and wet winter and early spring as it has pretty much squelched all the remaining drought from last year. While there are still some minor dry areas in southern Minnesota, the Twin Cities and much of northern Minnesota are now officially out of drought.