With today being Halloween, I thought I would tell you a tale full of nonsense that is particularly insubstantial, but true to the best of my recollection. Back in the late 60s, trick or treating was a big deal and what I would call a rite of passage to becoming a teenager. While a respectable costume was essential, the prize in the end was the volume of candy one could acquire in 2-3 hours time. In this era, I don't recall trick or treating being relegated to specific hours.

Wednesday was a transition day as the storm that brought light to moderate rains spun off to the east. In the overall scheme of things, the rain that fell was useful, but far from what the doctor ordered due to the dryness of the past 2 months. The system's rain shield was a bear to forecast right up to the end. When it was all said and done, the highest amounts locally ended up north of I-80 where some place like Galena, Independence, and Center Point all had over 6/10ths of

We finally got the rain machine running again Tuesday after another week long shut down. While it wasn't a drought breaker, it was helpful falling at a gentle pace along with cool temperatures, and no frost in the ground. There's no doubt we needed it, as rain has been at a premium since August 19th. Below are the rainfall departures in Iowa over that 71-day period, August 19th through Monday the 27th. Most of my area in eastern Iowa was 4.5 to 6.7 inches below normal before

Since the middle of last week, it's been apparent that our next storm system was going to be a challenge to forecast. Energy surging in off the Pacific is drawing a bead on the Midwest, that is, until it encounters a wall of high pressure situated over the eastern Great Lakes. Locked firmly in place, this formidable block will force the energy to take the path of least resistance. In this case, it makes a hard right and curls underneath the block, before eventually turning no

The state of the weather over the Midwest can be summed up by the fact we can be quite excited for 0.5" of rain. It has been just so dry, but an autumn storm looks to bring some appreciable rain to the area. The problem? There is a fly in the ointment as I alluded to yesterday - dry air over the northern Great Lakes that will cause quite a gradient in rainfall from west to east. The good news? High resolution modeling is depicting rain moving into the area Tuesday late aftern