A WEEKEND WITH A BLAZE....

June 7th I put up a post entitled dry times but not for long. In it I pointed out a coming pattern that was likely to produce significant and beneficial rains for much of my area. True to my word, the rains came to most areas and for some it was too much of a good thing. Flash flooding was an issue in some parts of EC Iowa and NW Illinois. That was another issue I was concerned about with the depth of the available moisture. Here's the rainfall estimates through Monday morning.

While much of my area picked up 2-5" of rain, the south was again cut short. Unfortunately that's the area that needed the rains most. Much of the precipitation below came Saturday night in the intense thunderstorms that crossed the region. Here's 24 hour amounts from that event.

The next couple days look quiet before a hot air mass makes a move on the central Midwest Thursday. The leading edge of the heat could create another cluster of storms then. It's too early to define where and how strong but additional heavy rain is a possibility Thursday night or Friday. The GFS shows the areas that were hit hardest the past week could again be under the gun with this rainfall forecast Thursday night through Friday.

Once the warm air is established temperatures will be going up and headed for the 90s this weekend. The 500mb jet stream flow that brings the warmth looks like this Saturday. A nice sized ridge building into the Midwest.

The 5-10 day temperature departures June 16-26th show the warmth.

The climate prediction center is in agreement.

Based on all the evidence I've seen it sure looks like above normal temperatures could dominate the rest of June. Summer has certainly come early this year.

By the way, Nimbus Robert Swails, the weather dog is taking up tennis. Anybody know where he can get a racket and a partner who won't eat the ball? By the way, Nimbus has started his own instagram page. You can follow him there at nimbustheweatherdog. I'm Out....