Make no mistake about it. The signs are there for all to see. The Midwest is entering an unusually wet pattern that raises concerns about excessive rains and flooding for some the next 7-14 days. Let's dig in. We'll start with the MJO. By following the dotted green lines you can see the long range forecast of the EURO MJO it's projected to spend much of the next 3 weeks in phases 1 and 2. Both have a September correlation to above normal precipitation across the central Midwe

Don't look now but over much of the northern half of the Midwest this is turning into a wet summer (June- August). In fact all of the stations below are currently experiencing one of the top 10 wettest. That's quite a bit or real estate. These stations will have their all-time wettest summer. When you look at the entire Midwest this is what you get for summer rainfall totals as of June 28th. A tighter view centered on Iowa. The state range from 25.48" to 8.05"" in less than 2

Strong to severe thunderstorms with torrential rains battered much of the central Midwest the past 24 hours. Some of the worst weather hit far southeast Minnesota and SW Wisconsin Monday night where some 12" rainfall reports were measured. Vernon county, Wisconsin was hard hit with widespread flooding and some evacuations. Later Tuesday the same disturbance fired powerful storms that crossed my southern counties. A classic bow echo developed producing numerous reports of stro

Rains of 5-10" fell in parts of SE Minnesota, SW Wisconsin, and extreme northeast Iowa last night. Additional heavy rain is likely later today and tonight. The Weather Prediction Center has issued a high to moderate risk of rainfall exceeding flash flood guidance in the areas highlighted below. This is a potentially serious concern for parts of the central Midwest, especially those areas hit hard last night. If you live in a flash flood prone area pay close attention to condi

Over the weekend we flipped the switch to summer in a big way. Temperatures were not all the bad, mid to upper 80s, but humidity was the worst it had been in nearly 2 months. As you can see below the dew point in Cedar Rapids Sunday reached 77, the 3rd highest of the summer and the highest since the first week of July. Tuesday won't be much better as dew points in much of the central Midwest are again headed for the mid 70s. Precipitable water vapor (pwat's) are way up there.