A Sunny Good Friday, Rainy Saturday – Iowa Weather Network Archives

A BIT OF PRECIP THIS WEEKEND: The sun will be returning to the skies today with temperatures back into the 40s and 50s. It will be a bit cooler in the northern counties with the snow cover on the ground, but this will melt pretty quickly during the day. As we head into tonight another system will be coming in from the west. This will bring a chance of some rain and perhaps a wintry mix in our northern counties tonight and again Saturday night. Rain will be around for most of the day on Saturday. This does not look like an all-day rain at this time as there will be some breaks here and there. Highs on Saturday will be in the middle 40s north to the middle 50s south and southeast. There may be some lingering showers in our eastern and southeastern counties for sunrise services on Easter morning but these should quickly depart to the east with some sunshine returning for the entire state by the afternoon. Highs will be in the 40s and 50s on Easter Sunday.

NEXT WEEK: Temperatures will warm back into the 50s and 60s Monday and Tuesday as winds come out of the south and southwest. This will be ahead of a vigorous system that will come in late Tuesday through the day on Wednesday. This will bring a good chance of some showers and thunderstorms. It’s too early to determine any possible severe weather with this system yet. It will bring much colder air to the state in its wake to end the week and end the month of March as well with readings on Thursday likely in the 40s to around 50.

AIMING AT APRIL: As we take a look at what the GFS is showing us in the extended period, it is showing much colder air over the area for the first couple days of April. A real bad April Fool’s Joke by Mother Nature, by the looks of this. The GFS is showing that readings could be 15-25 degrees below the seasonal norm for early April. This would mean (given the warm spell over the last few weeks) we could see the coldest temperatures we’ve seen in 4-5 weeks over the first few days of April. Temperatures quickly warm back to seasonal and even above seasonal levels as a parade of systems are seen moving through the area every few days with chances of showers and thunderstorms. We’ll watch for any changes and trends that come up.