THAWING OUT... FOR NOW...

As a storm moved through the Midwest on Sunday temperatures warmed into the 20s and 30s - the highest values in over two weeks for many. Cedar Rapids hit the 32 degree mark for the first time in 16 days (since December 22)!

Now this warm up came with a mixed bag of precipitation Sunday which lead to icy roads and around 0.10" of ice in spots along with sleet and snow. This system will continue to push east Monday morning and we will be left with a calm start to the work week. And another day with temperatures near and above freezing!

Temperatures will continue to trend upward through the middle of the week. A bigger push of warm air comes with a stronger winter storm that will come through Wednesday and Thursday. Temperatures will be at the warmest values in nearly three weeks on Wednesday evening:

This storm has the potential to put down some decent snowfall totals. On the current track this would place the heaviest snow in northwestern Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota. Of course there will some variations in the track and amounts in the coming days.

What will happen is another shot of cold air behind this storm. Here's a meteogram for Cedar Rapids to demonstrate the temperature trend:

Temperatures will drop Thursday into Friday and we'll be back below normal during the upcoming weekend. However, it is not going to be like this last round of arctic air because it's not going to be prolonged. We rebound pretty nicely next week! This is going right along with the MJO forecast which is heading into phase three:

Then it heads into phase four which is an even warmer phase.

We definitely deserve a break from the bitter cold - enjoy the thaw! RK