WOW, SEPTEMBER COMES EARLY...

Well, it seems like I've been talking about it for weeks, (actually it's only been 14 days) but the long advertised change to cooler weather is underway. You can see the powerful upper air low spinning over the state of Minnesota Thursday night...the cold front arching from Wisconsin southward into northeast MIssouri.

Here's what the system looks like at 500mb. You can't miss the deep trough digging into the Midwest.

The frontal passage in Cedar Rapids was accompanied by a wind gust of 35mph and a 20 degree drop in temperatures in a matter of 6 hours.

As of 8:00pm Thursday evening temperatures in SC Minnesota were only in the low 50s with dew points in the 40s.

For much of the next 2 weeks the cool air will dominate the overall weather pattern. Here's the 6-10 and 10-14 day temperature outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center. No heat waves here!

The pattern will also have limited moisture and for the most part rainfall looks below normal over the majority of the Midwest. Here's the CPC rainfall forecast for the 6-10 and 10-14 day periods.

The cool air is welcome but the dryness not so much where moderate to severe drought conditions have expanded over parts of southern Iowa.

After the heat and humidity that was so prevalent in July, this is a real change. And speaking of change, this will save you some of that as the air conditioners will get a nice break much of the next 2 weeks! Enjoy the fall preview and have an outstanding weekend. Roll weather...TS