It's a big holiday weekend (summer's last hurrah) and there's plenty of challenging weather, both locally as well as in the tropics. So let's get to it. Starting with my area and the central Midwest, the trends have been for improved weather compared to what models were indicating 2-4 days ago. Tuesday the Weather Prediction Center was showing this for rainfall on Saturday, Today, high pressure is now shown making a deeper push into the Midwest creating a drier solution with

Meteorological summer is just about over (June-August) and what better time to check out the newly released winter forecasts from two very popular sources, the Old Farmer's Almanac and its off-spring the Farmer's Almanac.That's right, they both exist but as two entirely different entities. Both create winter forecasts and each sees a nasty winter coming that includes the Midwest. The "Old Farmer's Almanac" dubs the 2019-20 winter as OUT COLD, saying (GET READY FOR SHIVERS, SN

The dog days of August never showed up this year. Those hazy hot humid days the month is known for have been few and far between. The hottest day so far this August in Cedar Rapids has been 87 and that was way back on the 4th. We've now gone 8 consecutive days without an 80 degree high. You can see the August 2019 temperature departures and the dominance of cool air in the central U.S. The streak of 8 days without an 80 should come to an end Thursday as a quick surge of warm

Stepping out the door early Tuesday was certainly a pleasant experience, one I would equate more with fall than late summer. That wall of humidity that's so common at this time of year was nowhere to be seen and temperatures in the 50s were a subtle (but gentle) reminder that we're on the down-side of the warm season. It's no wonder when you see a trough like this digging into the Midwest. That's a few weeks ahead of schedule. I couldn't help but be impressed with the 90kt j

Monday was a happy day for some who needed rain in parts of the Midwest. A convectively induced disturbance known as an MCV kicked of showers and storms that dumped heavy and much needed rain on parts of SE Iowa and WC Illinois. Keokuk had 1.84" of rain and there were likely spots in that region that had more than 2.00" Here's another perspective showing the sharp cut-off to the rain line on the NW flank of the MCV. The rain was a welcomed commodity in those areas as abnormal