Warming Weekend

After below normal temperatures and an end of the week that was both cool and wet we will begin a weekend that will start us on a warming trend! Rainfall totals across the state appeared heaviest across western Iowa where just over an inch fell in areas such as Sioux City and LeMars. Other areas of the state, especially the southeast, did not see nearly as much with only a few hundredths to a few tenths in the heaviest areas. Expect a few lingering showers over central and eastern Iowa tonight, and mainly cloudy skies over those same areas while parts of western Iowa begins to see some clearing skies.

Lows overnight tonight from near 50 in the northwest to near 60 in the southeast. Partly cloudy skies will prevail for Saturday, and with the sunshine we'll see highs in the mid 70s throughout the entire state. Saturday night will remain partly cloudy across the state, with increasing clouds over the west as we near sunrise on Sunday. Low temperatures will range from the lower to mid 50s from northeast to southwest. A weak frontal system will approach the state from the southwest on Sunday, bringing in more chances of showers and an isolated thunderstorm over the southwest half of the state on Sunday and Sunday evening. Highs on Sunday should be fairly consistent across the state near the mid 70s; with overnight lows in the mid to upper 50s from northeast to south. Our frontal system stalls out and begins to become diffuse which will decrease our chances of showers overnight on Sunday.

In the long range, it would appear that mainly zonal flow with embedded shortwaves will prevail over the plains states through the week. This will bring us off and on showers/thunderstorms throughout the week. Some slight ridging is expected to begin towards next weekend, with this expect an increase in temperatures as we near the upper 80s and finally the 90s across parts of Iowa. More details on this true southern warmth in next weeks' forecast updates.