Iowa Weather Report June 26th 2015: Rain Today, Sun Tomorrow.

OFF AND ON: More rain is possible today across the state. Outside the rain chances, skies will be mainly cloudy with readings in the 70s for the most part. Heading into the weekend, Saturday will be dry and mainly sunny with readings in the 70s and lower 80s. The up and down weather continues as a disturbance moves in from the north late Saturday night through the day on Sunday with another chance of showers and thunderstorms at that time. This will likely hold readings back into the 70s once more. Severe weather isn’t anticipated with any of these systems but we’ll watch for any changes to the contrary. Rainfall amounts through Sunday night will range between a half and one inch with some isolated heavier totals.

STAYING COOL: Temperatures will remain seasonally cool as we head into next week as the flow turns more out of the northwest. This will be due to a ridge building in the west with a trough over the Great Lakes and New England. We will be in the middle and that keeps us in the storm track as well. The GFS has another storm system diving southeastward across the area late Tuesday into Wednesday with a chance of showers and thunderstorms at that time. Rainfall amounts are too early to determine at this point and severe weather doesn’t look likely at this point either, although that could change as we get closer. Readings through the week will remain several degrees below seasonal levels, mainly in the 70s to around 80 across the state.

ROCKETS RED GLARE: As we head into the Independence Day weekend which is at the beginning of the extended period, the GFS continues to show some active weather around for the 4th with showers and storms. We’ll watch for any changes in the timing as we get closer, but the trend has been for some active weather around the area for the holiday, we just can’t pinpoint it down yet. Looking past the holiday, the ridge over the west will begin to break down and shift to the east. This run of the GFS has the ridge center over Kansas and Missouri around the end of the period on the 10-11th which would bring us much warmer readings at that time (if this were to occur). It would also push the storm track far enough to the north that any precipitation chances would be slim to none. We’ll have to wait and see.