Before we get to the nuts and bolts of Halloween, a little bit about my day Thursday. After 1/10th of an inch of rain Wednesday night, the first in 12 days, skies cleared early (as I said it would). I was blissfully eating my brown sugar pop tarts staring out at a cobalt blue sky. I was an uneventful morning until Carolyn strolled in and said, hey do you want to come with me and Nimbus (our dog) to Swiss Valley Nature preserve and walk the trails? Before the words got out of

Before we get into the meat of some influential weather, especially next week, some thoughts on Wednesday's balmy conditions. For perspective, let's start with the normal Iowa highs for yesterday October 28th, which range from 55 in the north to 60 in the far south (and falling daily). Compare that to the blow torch we saw Wednesday which shot highs into the range of 75 to 79 locally. While nobody established a record, most spots were within a few degrees. In Dubuque, the 75

Considering it's rained on just 4 of the past 28 October days here in Dubuque, you know the odds are strong that raindrops will find us sooner rather than later. Before it finally arrives though, we should run our current streak of dry weather locally to 12 consecutive days Wednesday, with showers holding off until after midnight. On average, the rule of thumb is you can expect measurable rain to fall about once every 3 days. Clearly, we are overdue. The next rain chance, (no

The beat goes on for our amazing October weather featuring daily high departures averaging 7 to 11 degrees above normal. The average daily high at the Quad City International Airport in Moline through the 26th is 73.6 degrees. That's 7.6 degrees above normal per day! While much of the Midwest has experienced below normal precipitation the southeast half of my area was near to above average, thanks largely to a wet system that clipped that area earlier in the month. One other

While whether the pattern flips colder remains uncertain at this point headed into early November, what is looking likely is the likely return to more active weather early next week. Given the moisture availability, the unseasonable warmth as well as the strong upper level pattern, severe weather is certainly a watch item in the region. The European Ensemble (above) shows a pretty active pattern across the Midwest approx. Nov. 2-4. The specific date remains uncertain, but the