IN SEARCH OF RAIN....

The weather is going to get more pleasant around here, but with the nice conditions also comes drier weather. And that's not something we need right now. The latest Drought Monitor came out Thursday morning and dry and drought conditions have been expanding across Iowa and other parts of the Midwest.

The worst of it is centered in western Iowa where severe drought conditions exist.

As an example, Carroll, Iowa has only seen 1.44" of rain in July (a month where there's normally over 4 inches). Additionally, the city is behind in precipitation for the year by about TEN inches.

Compare that to Cedar Rapids, which is starting to get dry, but got 4.77" of rain in July (about normal) and is just slightly below normal on rainfall for the year (1.58" below normal).

Unfortunately the next few days won't really support *much* rain. Here's a look at the rainfall totals on the

European model over the next week.

You can see the big hole in western Iowa... bad news for farmers out west of I-35 if that's true. The next chance for rain does come over the weekend with a cold front that will move through the Midwest.

There's not a ton of moisture with this front, but a few showers and thunderstorms will be possible on Sunday.

The bigger thing you'll notice will be behind this front... drier and cooler air will move into the area. It will be fall in early August!

Temperatures will be in the 70s and well below normal.. here's the temperature departure on Monday:

And the dew points you'll experience early next week... wooo it'll be refreshing!

It will feel nice... it's just not a pattern that leads to rain. Hopefully we see that change as we go deeper into August.

RK