Can you believe it, it's December 24th and Santa rides tonight. Seems like just yesterday I was mowing the lawn. Actually, I was mowing the lawn two days before Thanksgiving, which gives you a pretty good idea how mild our fall was until we flipped the switch to that crazy period of snow and cold to end November. One thing is for sure the remainder of this week and Saturday too, we remain very much on the mild side with cold and snow a no show for holiday travelers. Despite t

It's officially winter now, and wouldn't you know it, winter is nowhere to be seen, at least in its true form locally. The same can't be said for the last three weeks of fall, when cold and snow bombarded the region after Thanksgiving. Here in Dubuque, we had 18.3 inches of snow in the 10-day period November 28th through December 7th. Here's the snow totals from the Iowa Mesonet for the period November 28th through December 15th. Some spots in Cedar and Clinton County had up

Really no changes in the short term regarding a rather significant warmup this week with well-above-normal temperatures into Christmas Day. Temperature anomalies could be pushing 20-30+ degrees for a vast stretch of the central US. This comes with quiet weather as well, ideal for any travelers (like myself), so a much easier to deal with weather situation compared to the Thanksgiving holiday. With that said, locally temperatures have trended downward slightly, but things rema

The pattern setting up for Christmas week is looking historic. The strength of the ridge in the jet stream bringing record-warm temperatures for many is anticipated to be at records compared to climatology. Above you can see the 500mb char that looks more like a summertime death ridge than a wintertime pattern. All the bright red area is expected to see record-high 500mb heights, which is directly related to the major warmth at the surface. The next five days are averaging ab

Rip-roaring northwest winds howled Thursday night away. Gusts as high as 61 mph were measured in Cedar Rapids, with numerous spots in the 45 to 50 mph range. By Friday afternoon, the intense pressure gradient had relaxed, and the whole event was nothing more than a wind swept memory. A cold one at that, with temperatures once again well below normal. In keeping with the recent theme of our weather, fast moving disturbances will ripple through the upper level flow, bringing fr