Iowa Weather Report April 20th 2015: Blinded By the Sunlight

A COLD WEEK TO START: Colder weather will be the main weather topic this week across the state. Some clouds will be hanging tough in the northeastern counties of the state where there will also be a slight chance of some showers as well. Readings there will be held down in the upper 40s to lower 50s with 50s to near 60 elsewhere across the state with partly to mostly sunny skies. The clouds will erode a little bit on Tuesday in the northeastern counties while the rest of the state will remain in the partly to mostly sunny skies with readings a degree or two warmer from near 50 northeast to the lower 60s south and southwest. Wednesday and Thursday will be mostly sunny statewide with readings a bit warmer than on Tuesday.

WEEKEND: A storm system looks to move into the state late Thursday night through the day on Friday into the early morning hours on Saturday. This would bring decent chances of showers and perhaps a thunderstorms. The precipitation is more widespread than it was on this model run yesterday at this time and the timing has moved up from Saturday to Friday. Another weak disturbance may move through the state on Sunday but the chances of precipitation with that look slight at this time. Temperatures look to be in the upper 50s through the 60s on Friday with 50s to near 60 Saturday and Sunday as cooler air moves back in.

MAY WE LOOK AHEAD: As we look into the extended period, the GFS has temperatures rebounding ahead of the next system that is shown moving through the area on the 29th (Next Wednesday). This looks to last into the 30th with more storms possible around the 2nd and 3rd of May as well. Temperatures at this point look to remain near seasonal levels ending April and heading into the first few days of May. We’ll watch for any possible trends in the coming days.