Dry Until the Weekend

After the cold front passed through yesterday the skies have cleared off nicely and temperatures have leveled off to more of a normal fall day. Another cold front currently just to the north of the state will reinforce the cooler air and bring temperatures down to even below normal for a few days this week. Luckily for most farmers and others that just don't want it, rain isn't expected from this cold frontal passage. Some occasional cloud cover will be about the most you can get from this one when it passes through Iowa at least, further to the north where there is some more help for precipitation they are looking at rain/snow mixes in northern Minnesota. Iowa doesn't look to be seeing any type of snow in the forecast, we'll hold off on that for a while!

Highs today in the mid 70s to the southern third of the state, upper 60s over the northern third as the cold front slowly sags to the south overtaking some of the northern counties. Tonights' lows will be influenced by this next shot of cold air, mid 40s in the south to the upper 30s in the northern sections. The cold front should pass through by Wednesday, leaving the entire state behind in a pool of below normal temperatures. Highs struggling to reach 60 in the southwest part of the state, mid 50s to near 50 for the high from central to northeast Iowa. The lows once again will drop down to near frost conditions on Wednesday night for northwest Iowa, expect mid 30s for lows there. The remainder of the state will see upper 30s for the most part, a few 40 marks mixed in for the 'heat islands'. Thursday should mark the last day of chilly air before we begin a warm up for the weekend, highs in the mid to upper 50s throughout; a 60 degree reading or two isn't out of the question though in the extreme south. Thursday night will get us out of the frost possibilities, lower 40s and upper 30s from southwest to northeast.

The warm up will begin on Friday with the light winds finally getting a southerly component in them. Highs in the upper 60s for the southwest, mid 60s for the northwest & southeast and lower 60s for the northeast. Lows on Friday in the mid 40s to near 40 from west to east across the state. By the time we reach the weekend it looks like the next system may have portions of the state within its' influence. Rain chances already introduced for western Iowa on Saturday night through Sunday night. I'll watch this system progress over the week, it'll likely slow compared to current model forecasts but nonetheless have an effect on the weekend activities for some portion of the state. Next forecast update likely on Thursday...