SWEET AS THE CORN...

The past few days have been special ones weatherwise thanks to an expansive high pressure that's dominating the eastern half of the nation. Here's the upper level pattern bringing the pleasant change.

The sea level pressure anomaly chart shows a massive surface high sprawled all the way from Mexico to Canada.

The northerly winds east of the high have cut off the deep moisture that brought extreme humidity and dew points last week. Notice the absence of rain anywhere east of the Rockies.

It makes sense when you look at the water vapor anomalies which are less than half of what is normal.

Here the observed rainfall amounts over the past 2 days. Pretty meager.

The satellite provides another example of the limited weather associated with the dry air mass.

After a wet spring and early summer some parts of Iowa and the central Midwest have fallen on dry times and could use some rain. These are the July rainfall departures around the state of Iowa. Some pockets of heavy rain have kept it wet in the NW third but much of the south and east are 1 to nearly 3" below normal on rain.

July rainfall departures around the rest of the corn belt,

If you are one of those in need of a good shower you will have to wait a few days. With limited moisture and an unfavorable storm track the bulk of the rain holds west and north of the central Midwest. This is the EURO rainfall forecast through the day Sunday.

Sunday night a front is projected to pass through the region bringing scattered showers and storms. Most totals are expected to be in the 1/4 to 1/2" range in my local area. However, some of the stronger updrafts could produce locally higher amounts. Rains in this type of set-up can be hit and miss.

It does appear that warmer weather will return for the weekend. Winds will swing to the south tapping warmer and more humid conditions. Sunday appears to be the warmest day when highs should be close to 90. The EURO shows this for highs Sunday afternoon.

In the meantime, it's steady as she goes with more sunshine and seasonal highs in the 80s. Good weather to get into some of the sweet corn that's popping up in stands around the region. Just had my first ears today and they were delightful. Roll weather...TS