[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoTQFQCsnVE&w=480&h=360]
SUNDAY SOAKER: We head into the weekend after a week of heavy rains, some wintry mess in the northern counties and some scattered severe weather here and there. The sun does return for everyone today with highs climbing back into the 40s to lower to middle 50s across the state. But this only lasts a day as the next storm system approaches from the west with some cloudiness and some moisture returning. A few showers are possible after Midnight Sunday morning across the area with some of the far northern counties possibly seeing some of the precipitation start as a rain snow mix before changing to all rain later Sunday morning. Sunday will a wide range across the state, with temperatures ranging from near 50 near the Iowa Minnesota border to the lower 70s in southeast Iowa. As the cold front moves in late in the afternoon into the evening, showers and thunderstorms will be possible. Whereas severe weather is not likely with any of these storms, some locally heavy rain can’t be ruled out at this time.
NEXT WEEK: The cold front that sweeps across the state Sunday into Sunday night will stall just to the south of the state. This will keep some clouds over the southeastern quarter of the state while the rest see some sunshine to start the week, however this will not last a wave will form along the frontal system and precipitation will break out as early as Tuesday night into Wednesday. Rain will break out across the state once again, possibly with some embedded thunder, but severe weather isn’t likely as we’ll be on the cold side of the front. There is a chance some of the precipitation may mix with some sleet or snow in the northwestern counties, but it’s too early to tell at this time. If any snow does fall, it would likely be light with the better moisture staying across the eastern and southeastern counties of the state where readings will be well above freezing until late Thursday night when all of the state could see the precipitation change over to a wintry mix or some light snow before ending Friday morning. This is still a fluid situation, we’ll have some better model data in the next 24-48 hours on this aspect of the system.
FLYING THROUGH APRIL: Approaching the end of the month a few more storms are in the offing with a fairly progressive pattern with short cool downs and quick rebounds in temperature. Of course this is still more than a week away so we’ll have to wait and see more model data before having more confidence at this time.