Iowa Weather Report May 1st 2013 – Iowa Weather Network Archives

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MAY DAY MAY DAY WE GOTS SNOW!: Cold front will continue to move slowly through the state today. Most of the precipitation will be behind the front where temperatures will struggle into the 40s and 50s today. Meanwhile over the far eastern counties, there could be some filtered sunshine once again with perhaps an isolated thunderstorm along the cold front with highs in the 70s to lower 80s. The front will eventually win out as it moves into western Illinois and begins to stall, this will bring the cooler conditions statewide for Thursday through the weekend with readings in the 40s and 50s. The GFS as well as several other models continue to show the possibility of some snow across mainly the western and central counties of the state beginning late tonight through Thursday night if not also Friday morning. This is due in part to the 850mb temperature (about 5000 feet off the ground) being at or below the freezing mark. There is likely to be some rain snow mix, perhaps even some sleet as well. Still not totally bought on the idea of all snow, but it is certainly out there. If snow happens to fall, it will be a very wet snow, likely only sticking to the grass and perhaps some metal signs or vehicles but not much else. A few inches is possible especially in the northern and northwestern counties of the state.

COLD CORE LOW, AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT: The upper level low will be near Enid Oklahoma by midday Friday. At this point as well, the 850mb temps will rise back above freezing statewide, so the threat of wintry weather looks to end there, however the precipitation does not. It will remain showery and cool heading into the weekend. The GFS has the upper level low moving into Arkansas on Saturday with the plume of moisture rotating around the eastern and northern sections continuing to give us rain throughout the day. Temperatures likely in the 50s with the upper level feature far enough away, however other models namely the 12z Euro had the low much closer, we’ll have to wait and see. Sunday will see the rain showers become a bit more scattered as dry air gets en-trained into the system. The upper level low will be south of Cape Girardeau MO and Paducah KY (according to the GFS) and continuing to slowly move to the east. The rain will gradually end Sunday into Sunday night as the system gets far enough away. This is still very fluid at this time so radical forecast changes are still possible.

MAY WARM UP: Looks like temperatures will return to near seasonal levels early to middle of next week and beyond with a few storm systems that we’ll watch but with the uncertainty with this upper low, we have little confidence in the longer range at this time.