Annual counts of hours with dew point temperatures of 80 F or greater in the Twin Cities, along with the annual maximum hourly dew point since 1945.
In the early morning of July 27, 2026, the MSP airport recorded six consecutive hours of 80-degree F dew point temperatures, with a maximum reading of 81 F at 2 AM, making this one of the most intensely humid dates on record for the Twin Cities.
Dew point temperatures of 80 F or higher are rare across Minnesota. Since 1945, MSP has only had 13 days, and a total of just 37 hours, with dew points that high. The longest stretch of 80 F or higher dew points during that period lasted 10 hours, covering parts of July 12 and 13, 1995. An extremely humid heat wave on July 17-19, 2011 produced eight different hourly observations of 80 F or higher dew point temperatures, including MSP's all-time peak hourly reading of 82 F at both 3 and 4 PM on the 19th. This same extraordinary heat wave produced the state's all-time hourly dew point record of 88 F at Moorhead.
The lion's share of 80+ F dew point observations in Minnesota occur during July. In the Twin Cities (which has the longest available record in the state), 12 of the 13 days and 36 of the 37 hours with such humid extremes have occurred during July, with the other lone instance on June 22, 1983. That observation also marks the first time on record that MSP had such a high dew point temperature. Although the record back into the 1940s (and even a more limited record back to 1903) shows plenty of instances of dew point temperature in the upper 70s F, all of the 80 F dew point readings at MSP have occurred from the 1980s onward.
Based on measurements of total water in the atmosphere sampled by weather balloons, humidity is increasing in all seasons across Minnesota and virtually all of North America, but it is the summertime humidity extremes that garner the most attention because they are tied to dangerous heat stress for humans and many animals. The most extreme hourly annual dew point temperatures have increased by an average of just over 2 degrees F since 1945 in the Twin Cities.