Iowa Weather Report August 12th 2015: Warming Up the Dry Bones

DRY AND WARMING UP: It will remain dry across the state through the rest of the week with temperatures slowly warming up as we head toward the weekend. Highs today will be in the lower to middle 80s with temperatures by this weekend reaching the lower 90s in some areas. Humidity levels will also be on the increase and will be more noticeable by the weekend as winds will be from the south and southwest bringing moisture into the area. There is a very slight chance of a shower or storm late Thursday night into early Friday that could skim the far northeastern counties, but the best chances of that looks to stay across Wisconsin for the time being.

NEXT CHANCE OF RAIN: As mentioned in the last paragraph, moisture will be moving back into the state with increased humidity levels by the weekend. It will remain dry on Saturday, but on Sunday a cold front will try to move into the state with some chances of showers and thunderstorms across the northwestern counties of the state on Sunday with a chance moving through the rest of the state on Monday and Tuesday of next week. The chances are still slim at this time, but they do look better than what we saw on the models yesterday. We’ll see if this trend continues in the coming days. Readings this weekend and into early next week will be in the 80s to lower 90s but could be cooler in rain effected areas.

THROUGH THE END OF PERIOD: Looking toward the end of next week and beyond, the GFS continues showing a chance of showers and storms through the end of next week across the area. This will be with a slow moving cold front that will move across the state. The main center of low pressure however will be well to the north of the state over Canada. There is still some uncertainty with this set up so don’t fret over the model run showing a lot of precipitation during the State Fair next week. We’ll have a better idea in the coming days. Farther out, the GFS shows another system around the 24th and 25th with some showers and thunderstorms at that time as well followed by a few days of calm weather with seasonal temperatures. Note, this is very different from what we said yesterday about hot and dry weather, so the consistency is not there to give us much confidence past the middle of next week. We’ll keep watching it however.