Iowa Weather Report May 7th 2014 (Severe Weather Possible)

STORMY SKIES AHEAD: We could see some ongoing showers and storms this morning in our northern counties along the northward bound warm front that will have moved through the state. This will bring temperatures well up into the 80s and lower 90s across the state outside the far northern counties that may stay in the upper 70s with a few more clouds around. It will be quite humid as well with dew points in the 60s so some heat indices into the lower 90s are certainly possible. Heading into Thursday the cold front will move into the state, with it will come a chance of some showers and thunderstorms. Some of these storms could become strong to severe with large hail and damaging winds being the main threats. The severe weather parameters however aren’t looking very promising when it comes to the severe weather chances. As mentioned in this IWR yesterday, the CAPE’s, and most all severe weather parameters look much better during the afternoon and evening hours today than they do on Thursday but we will be capped off and should see no storm development. SPC has a slight risk of severe weather both today for far northern Iowa mainly in the morning and for Thursday across a large swath of the state.

UNSETTLED WEEKEND: Another storm looks to move into the state late on Saturday into the day on Sunday. This will bring a chance of showers and thunderstorms once again to the area. Highs will be in the upper 60s to lower and middle 70s both days across the state. This does not look like an all-day rain, so we could also see some breaks in the clouds and a bit of sunshine as well.

INTO NEXT WEEK AND BEYOND: The shower and storm activity looks to continue into Monday before it finally clears heading into Tuesday. Readings will still remain in the middle 60s to middle 70s both days across the state which is near the seasonal average for the early to middle of May. By next Wednesday, a cold front will come in from the northwest which will bring some showers and thunderstorms and some much cooler air that looks to last through at least next Friday before readings recover to near average. Farther out in the extended period, after the brief cool down we see the middle of next week and the recovery, the pattern looks unsettled again with several systems bringing with it showers and thunderstorms. We’ve been seeing this trend of a fairly active period for quite a while, but it’s too early to set that in stone as lots of things can change in the time period. What does it show is that any thought of drought this year is not looking too good with the decent chances of precipitation in the next two weeks.