April, don't let the door hit you in the butt! Finally, this month is coming to a close. Overall, it was damp. cool, and windy. Most areas even saw some snow, up to 5 inches of it fell near Dubuque. Overall, it was just a month that saw little in the way of spring weather. So be it. Here's the April temperature departures going into the last day. Here's the precipitation totals for the same period. The anomalies look like this. Most of the northern half of my are was 1 to 1.5

Just to make a point about the volatility of the pattern we are in, here's what the GFS operational shows for snowfall May 6th. Take a little look see and then I'll comment. First and foremost, even in the dead of winter that's a nice little band of snow. That in itself is impressive. However, for a model to spit this out in May it's obvious it has to be seeing some very cold air. It can snow this time of year, (I've seen it) however it would take a very unique set of circums

Wednesday was a tale of two seasons around my area. Readings in the far northeast never got out of the upper 40s while in SE Iowa highs hit at least 75 in Keokuk and 73 in Ft. Madison (a spread of 27 degrees over 190 miles). Those of you who remained in the 40s and 50s can blame Lake Michigan. Water temperatures are not much more than 40 degrees and when winds with an easterly component blow our way, temperature suffer thanks to the chill the water produces. Notice how the so

Tuesday morning was disgustingly cold around the central Midwest. So chilly that record lows were established in Cedar Rapids and Burlington. Most other cities were within 1-3 degrees of their daily records as well. That's the 2nd record low for Cedar Rapids in just a weeks time. Last Tuesday they hit 19 and this week it was 22. So far 19 of the months 26 days have seen lows at or below 32. That's enough of that stuff! Here's some of lows from around Iowa Tuesday morning. Sev

Let's face it, there haven't been many good days in April and Monday certainly wasn't one of them. Temperatures were buried in the 40s instead of the mid 60s which are more typical of late April. Here's a look at at 5:00pm readings. Ouch, that's tough, especially compared to the southeast U.S. where you can see highs were well into the 80s. The entire central and upper Midwest was 15-25 degrees below normal as depicted in the departures. Aiding and abetting the cold was a dre