Nothing says March like fluctuating temperatures. This whole month has been nothing but wild ups and downs and with 6 days to go we are far from done. On a positive note, we'll lean more towards the warm side of average as opposed to the cold. Here's where things stand. In the big picture, this March is going down as a blow torch. Below are the months temperature departures through the 23rd. I would say 98-99% of the nation is above average. In fact, it's been so warm that Ma

While we got the week off to a fine start Monday with plenty of sunshine, it was a bit crisp around the edges. Steve Gottschalk reported to me the day started with a low of 24 in Lowden, a robust 64 degrees colder than 39 hours earlier when the mercury read 88 Saturday. Specaking of extremes, here's one you won't see very often. The low March 17th in Cedar Rapids was zero, 4 days later the 21st, the high was 89. Yes, you did the math right, that was a jump of 89 degrees in ab

The end of March is lacking any major excitement from a weather standpoint, but longer-term forecasts are showing an uptick in activity as we move into April with ensemble guidance and analog support. This could be a somewhat active stretch overall with multiple waves of storms moving through the central US as the pattern that builds in supports a somewhat active pattern. Analogs are all in on well above normal temperatures in the region as the active weather pattern takes ov

As we enter a bit of a stretch of quiet weather I thought now would be a good time to take a look at the spring severe weather outlook using analogs similar to this upcoming spring. I have been doing this the last several years and overall the verification has been pretty good. For our exercise we are looking nationally, trying to pin down areas and times of the spring that may see more active weather. Last spring my analogs were indicating a somewhat active Central Mississip

We had a heck of a weather hand to play Friday, but the one we're getting Saturday is the one to lay some serious money on. I see a lot of aces on the table, especially considering the time of year. A normal high March 21st ranges from 45 north to 50 south, we are looking a numbers closer to 76-81. For perspective, the average high doesn't reach 80 in Dubuque unitl June 22nd! It's June 9th at the NWS office in Davenport. Anyway, with highs 30 degrees above normal we already h