After a month of relatively mild, quiet weather, the Arctic hounds are stirring, and it won't be long before they howl a chilling song. Winter is coming back, my friends, and the next 2–3 weeks have the potential to be both cold and snowy, certainly snowier than the last 30 days. It's hard to get a specific handle on snow more than 7 days out, but I certainly see much greater potential the last week of January. The ensembles of the EURO show this for amounts the next two week

We got the week off to an exceptional start Monday with abundant sunshine, light winds, and highs in the range of 45-50. This comes during a two-week period where January temperatures have been running well above normal, as much as 13.6 degrees per day in Lowden, Iowa, according to my climate guru Steve Gottschalk. Included in that was a day last Friday when highs in the upper 50s to low 60s were found areawide. That produced exceptionally moist air that generated scattered t

While short-term weather is somewhat quiet (up and down temperatures, yawn) the long-range forecast is starting to get a little more interesting and that could likely feature some colder temperatures more reminiscent of winter. Above you can see the European Ensemble for late this week with a big trough over the Great Lakes region. Northwest flow will be on the cooler side of normal with also mainly dry conditions with that northwest flow as well. So far this meteorological w

We have had quite the journey in the weather department over the start of January with warmth, severe thunderstorms, bitter cold and bursts of snow. Saturday we had an Arctic Front traverse the region bringing burst of snow across the area with overall limited accumulation. I had the privilege of watching the Bears/Packers game at Soldier Field in Chicago and we had the most beautiful snow pregame. The bitter cold thankfully held off to after the fact. Sunday will be a chilly

That big old rain system that plowed through the Midwest Thursday was out of character for early January. Moisture levels were off the chart, with dew points in the mid to upper 50s, close to all-time records for January 8th. Much of my area saw rains of 1/3 to slightly more than an inch. In this 3D perspective of rain totals, you can clearly see a feature known as a dry slot extending near and east of the Mississippi. Dry air drawn into the circulation center (common with st