HOW 'BOUT THAT RAIN...

The party is over for our late summer fling. But, what a swinging time it was. As you can see below, at the NWS site in Davenport, October 21st and 22nd are the latest that location has gone in the month with two consecutive days at or above 80 degrees.

Cedar Rapids now ranks 3rd in same category, just 2 days behind the record set in 1963.

Every party has a pooper (or so they say) and late Monday afternoon it was a cold front. Behind it rain and northerly winds had sent temperatures in the 40s in western Iowa. See if you can tell where the front was located at 4:00pm late Monday.

Also notice that those temperatures were 35-40 degrees colder than at the same time Sunday. Somebody left the refrigerator door open. Shame on you!

Not only did we open the door for cooler air, we also left some room to let some rain in too. For parts of my area this was the largest rain in over a month and in some areas of the NW, the largest in nearly 2 months. In Dubuque the last time an inch or more of rain fell was back on August 8-9th. We didn't get it done with this event but so far 7/10ths has fallen. Unfortunately, my central counties came up on the short end of the stick thanks to a dry slot that formed along the track of the surface low which traveled over east/central Iowa. Here's the Doppler estimates as of 1:00am Tuesday. You can see the heaviest rain with the first wave over my western counties. Tomorrow it falls in my far eastern counties.

For my counties NW of the Quad Cities, any lingering rain or drizzle Tuesday morning should quickly fizzle and move out early Tuesday. However, rain could persist much of the day east of the Mississippi as a potent southern stream disturbance sends a wave into EC Illinois. More significant rain is likely with this system in that part of my area. The heaviest amounts will occur the further SE you go from the Quad Cities. Here is what models are indicating for rain totals. This encompasses the period midnight Monday to Midnight Wednesday.

The EURO

The GFS

The Weather Prediction Center outlook

With lots of clouds and rain around in the southeast half it's going to be dreary raw day with highs holding in the upper 40s to low 50s. The EURO indicates highs that look like this.

By Wednesday skies will be clearing out and the area gets into another dry period that should last for roughly a week. With sunshine returning, temperatures will moderate with highs close to seasonal levels. That means we go from the upper 50s Wednesday to the low 60s by the end of the week. Readings around 60-65 are expected for the weekend as high pressure rules the roost.

At least for now, models are not showing much in the way of cold air through the first few days of November. Here's the week 1 temperature departures on the EURO.

Week two ending November 8th. As mild as this is, it's front loaded and by the 6th or 7th things could be significantly colder than what the anomalies show. Stay tuned.

After Tuesday's rain ends east of the Mississippi, precipitation is light the next 2 weeks with most of what falls coming in the next 24 hours. Anyway, we get our ugly weather out of the way early this week and then it's back to dry weather with cool nights and mild days. I think you're going to like it. Roll weather...TS