A SHORT REPRIEVE...

A strong cold front that raked the Midwest Tuesday brought us all back to the reality that winter is lurking and can strike on short notice at any time. After highs in the 50s and low 60s Tuesday, readings in many areas held in the mid to upper 20s Wednesday with wind chills in the single digits. At mid-afternoon temperatures in many areas were about 30 degrees colder than 24 hours earlier. It was not a pleasant day to be outside.

Out west, some spots were also looking at a coating of snow. This hi-res visible satellite shows the snow cover deposited by Tuesday's system from NW Iowa into SE Minnesota.

These are the actual reported snowfall amounts.

Despite all that snow to the NW, the system produced little in the way of precipitation in my area. That's pretty much the way it's been around here the past 2 weeks. The active storm tracks have split north and south of my area. You can see them laid out in the precipitation totals since mid-November.

Today will be day 15 with no measurable rain in Dubuque and it looks as though it could be awhile before anything significant occurs.

Over the next 10 days ending December 10th, here's what the EURO and GFS indicate for precipitation totals. Most locations are showing little more than a trace. That just pathetic.

The EURO