30 DAYS IN THE HOLE...

The Midwest is coming off a soggy 30 day period. Northwest Iowa has been especially drenched with some place seeing 4 times their mean precipitation. Surrounding parts of Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin have seen 3 times their usual output.

Here's some of the reported totals. The southeast U.S. has been even wetter.

A closer perspective centered on Iowa. Nearly 5" in Cedar Rapids February 12-March 12th.

For many, particularly in the upper Midwest much of the precipitation has come in the form of snow. The pink areas are where snowfall is 5 times the mean.

That translates to amounts in the 30 to 50" range in just the past month from NC Iowa to the upper peninsula of Michigan.

You can see what a snowy winter it's been over the northern half of the nation. This is total seasonal accumulation.

With recent warm temperatures much of Iowa's snow has melted. However, there is still plenty on the ground from extreme northern Iowa into Minnesota and Wisconsin.

What's left of the snow up north also has a tremendous water content. I'm quite confident that despite a coming crest on the Mississippi in my area, this is not the big one. I don't expect the primary snow melt crest for several more weeks when the snow over the upper Midwest finally melts. You can see below water content of 4-9" is widespread within the existing snow pack

All this talk of moisture and precipitation points to the need of some drier weather for soils to dry up and rivers to recede. The EURO certainly points to that with this 7 day precipitation forecast.

While cool, temperatures won't be much below normal through next Wednesday with highs generally in the upper 30s to upper 40s. Throw in some sunshine and we're in for a pretty good stretch of weather. Happy Friday and roll weather...TS