[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7Nty072koM&hl=en&fs=1]

QUIET WEEKEND: The Weather this weekend will be nothing like what occurred south of the state on Good Friday. The St Louis metro area was especially hard hit with possible tornadoes occuring across the northern suburbs of St Louis on both the Missouri and Illinois side of the MS River. Lambert Int’l Airport will be closed today and possibly tomorrow as well. Back in Iowa, the front that caused the storms here and down in St Louis will be stalled from Pittsburgh PA to around Springfield MO. The rain and possible severe weather will stay in that area for most of the weekend. It will only be later on Easter that the front will begin to lift back north as a warm front that a shower may move into the southern counties of the state by late evening.

EARLY WEEK STORM: The main precipitation event will come through the state Monday into early Tuesday morning. It will be a quick mover so amounts will be light with no more than a half inch possible outside of some isolated heavier totals. Severe weather looks to stay to the south of the state at this time. Some backwash precip may occur across the east on Tuesday afternoon but not everyone will see rain then. The rest of the week will be dry and sunny (outside of some clouds across the SE on Wednesday with a developing low in western KY) before another storm approaches by next weekend.

FLOODING: The Mississippi River has crested from the Quad Cities northward. The river should crest by this weekend downstream to Keokuk. It will take at least a week or two for the river to get back to and below flood stage after the crest. The river will be below flood stage across the NE by mid-week with areas near Dubuque by late week into next weekend near Clinton.

Other rivers including the Little Sioux, Big Sioux, West Fork Des Moines, Des Moines and Missouri also remain under flood warnings as well. These rivers will also remain above flood stage at least through the weekend into early next week.