A WARM AND DRY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

Sunny and warm conditions continue through Memorial Day weekend and through much of the last week of May as an overall quiet pattern takes over the Upper Midwest. Highs Sunday (above) are forecast to be in the low 80s across the area under a mainly sunny sky.

Monday, for your Memorial Day, temperatures creep up a little more into the mid 80s with still a mainly sunny sky with much warmer temperatures building off to the west across the central Plains.

By Tuesday areas will warm even more, with temperatures approaching 90 across the region. This will likely be the warmest day in the short term as a weak storm system looms Wednesday to bring a brief reprieve from the highest temperatures. For now.

WEDNESDAY - GFS

WEDNEDAY - EURO

Wednesday is the best chance for rain for a bit, and even that chance is rather limited. Both the GFS and the Euro are in pretty good agreement with rain likely staying south of I-80 across Missouri and far southern Iowa. There looks to also be a limited rain chance in northeast Iowa/southern Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The rain forecast on the Euro through Thursday morning shows much of our area avoiding any meaningful rainfall. It has been quite active, but we are starting to slowly get to a point we could use some rain to make sure we do not dry out too much too fast with the heat and sunshine.

Analogs are continuing very dry conditions relative to normal into the beginning of June. Probabilities of below-normal rainfall are over 80%! That's quite the signal for this time of year, which is hostorically some of the more active periods of the year.

RIght now the current drought monitor is looking great across the Upper Midwest, however if this pattern really shuts down in the next two weeks like modeling is indicating, this could very quickly start showing signs of drought once again as the topsoil starts to heat up and dry out with the warming season. Watching this very closely!

Have a great weekend, friends. Thank you to all of those that have served in the branches of the military protecting our great nation. Let's make sure we always remember what this holiday weekend is truly about.

-Meteorologist Nick Stewart