Cold Nights... Cool Days...

Despite averages in the 70s and 50s, mother nature doesn't want to give us the normal transition into fall. Instead we are dipping down to near record lows across the state, flirting with potential frost and despite sunny skies keeping the cool air around to limit the high temperatures to below normal readings as well. Last night had frost/freeze advisories up in northern Minnesota with some of the NWS offices around Iowa indicating that patchy frost could occur in some of the lower lying areas. Lows from last night ranged from the mid 30s to mid 40s across the state; the lowest reading coming out of Mason City where they reached a near freezing 34 degrees! Estherville & Sheldon in northwest Iowa were the runners' up with lows at 35; my house in Terril, IA dropped down to 33.8 degrees!

Despite the cold temperatures, the warmth of the sun will allow us to warm up fairly nice today over the western and southern portions of the state where the trough in the upper levels has moved off far enough to the east. The trough is still expected to affect some areas of northeastern Iowa, where highs will be left to struggle to get to the 70 mark. The rest of the state can expect highs in the lower to mid 70s. Tonights' lows aren't expected to nearly be as cold as last nights; ranging from the mid 40s in the east to the mid 50s in the west, once again thanks to the movement of the upper level trough that was over the state last night.

Showers & an isolated thunderstorm begin to work into the forecast for Thursday, over western Iowa mainly Thursday afternoon moving across the remainder of the state during the evening and overnight hours. Highs during the day on Thursday will be a relief from cool air; ranging from the mid 70s in northwest Iowa to the mid 80s possibly in the southeast. But, as the rain/thunderstorms pass through more cold air is behind it... Lows during the nighttime hours will drop back into the 40s for a majority of the state, a few 50s reading in extreme southeast Iowa where the front will just be passing over during the nightttime hours.

With the second shot of cold air for the week, highs will be at the lowest they have been since spring. Expected highs range from the upper 50s over northern Iowa to the mid 60s in southern Iowa although some discrepencies are occurring with that forecast; temperatures could be struggling to get out of the 50s throughout the state if the cold air comes in strong enough. The lows on Friday night will once again dip down far enough to flirt with the frost point; mid 30s for the northern half and upper 30s with a few scattered 40 readings in the southern half of the state. It should however prepare us for a gradual warm-up for the weekend and the next round of college football, next update likely to be the Gameday Forecast for the Iowa vs Iowa State college football game on Saturday!