A SLOW BURN...
For some it came, for others it was another miss. The weekend rains were a joyous sight for some area farmers, especially those in my western counties. For those near and east of the Mississippi it was more angst as the rains were tantalizingly close and barely settled the dust (if there was any at all). In this graphic you can see there was a swath from NW to SE across Iowa where 1 to as much as 2 inches fell. However, the rain hit a wall of dry air from EC Iowa and areas north and east of the Quad Cities and died on contact.
A closer view of Iowa's weekend rains.
Here's what fell in Illinois.
Another perspective of the 48 hour weekend rain totals by way of Doppler estimates.
After the weekend system, the road was paved for a continuation of very warm and extremely dry weather through at least Saturday. The EURO has been doing a better job with highs lately as it seems to be handling the feedback from the dry soils and dry lower atmosphere better. I like its idea of highs in the range of 88 to 94 Tuesday-Saturday. Here's the EURO meteogram for the Quad Cities out to Sunday June 25th. That 93 Sunday is very questionable.
The plus is that dew points are likely to remain in the 50s during the day so despite the warmth, it won't be that thick oppressive heat we so often see in summer.
The biggest question to answer is can we get a system strong enough to deliver some rain late this weekend? On a home from from Iowa City to Dubuque I witnessed many fields where corn was rolling and some areas even firing (turning yellow in spots). These are tried and true signs the crop is under stress in many parts of eastern Iowa due to drought. Another 6 days of sunshine and highs near 90 will make rain a critical ingredient for crop development going forward. The EURO is bullish on bringing a closed upper low into the region Sunday and Monday. It's forcing and positioning ripe for widespread rain that could be in the area into next Tuesday. This is the 500mb energy it shows followed by the rain it generates.
EURO rainfall