Iowa Weather Report March 23rd 2015: Little Of This, Little of That

AN ACTIVE WEEK AHEAD: The weather pattern is getting more active across the area this week with several systems bringing much needed precipitation to the state. The current system that bought some snow and wintry mix across the northeastern counties of the state will be moving out early on today. Any precipitation should be ending during the late morning or early afternoon hours. Skies in western Iowa however will become partly to mostly sunny which will help boost readings there well into the 50s and 60s. The eastern counties with the precipitation and clouds around will be held into the upper 30s and 40s for highs. There will be no break in the activity as the next storm system will be right on the heels of the first one. This one is more dynamic and could bring the state some embedded thunderstorms along with rain late Monday night and especially Tuesday into Tuesday night. The best chance of seeing thunderstorms will be across the southern counties of the state. Some of the precipitation in the northern counties may start out as a rain and sleet mix before switching over to all rain on Tuesday. Readings on Tuesday will be in the 40s north to the middle 50s closer to the Missouri border. This system will move off to the east late Tuesday night but another disturbance will be hanging back across the Dakotas and this will swing through Wednesday into early on Thursday with another chance of some rain at that time as well. Some of that precipitation may also mix with some sleet or snow especially Wednesday night. Colder air will move in as we move toward the end of the week with skies remaining mostly cloudy on Friday.

WEEKEND: Temperatures will jump back up as we head into the second half of the weekend but this will be short lived as a cold front will move in from the northwest on Sunday. This will bring a chance of some showers with it, however don’t expect a lot of precipitation with this system. Readings Saturday will be near seasonal levels in the 40s and 50s with Sunday seeing temperatures in the 50s and 60s ahead of the cold front passage.

ONWARD: Looking into the extended period, the GFS has another system in the area toward the end of the month and into the 1st of April. This would bring more precipitation to the state at that time (likely all rain). This looks to be followed by another storm around the 3rd and 4th that could bring showers and thunderstorms to the state. (if this pans out). Temperatures look to cool down behind this system for the rest of the period with the unsettled weather pattern continuing. What we feel is that, there are many chances of seeing precipitation in the next two weeks, temperatures are going to be up and down during the period and winter isn’t done with us quite yet.