IT'S TIME TO WARM AGAIN...

While we got the week off to a fine start Monday with plenty of sunshine, it was a bit crisp around the edges. Steve Gottschalk reported to me the day started with a low of 24 in Lowden, a robust 64 degrees colder than 39 hours earlier when the mercury read 88 Saturday. Specaking of extremes, here's one you won't see very often. The low March 17th in Cedar Rapids was zero, 4 days later the 21st, the high was 89. Yes, you did the math right, that was a jump of 89 degrees in about 4 days.

That high of 89 becomes the all-time warmest temperature ever measured in Cedar Rapids during the month of March. In the graphic below, you can see the warmest temperature for each month of the year in C.R. That 110 degree reading July 6th, of 1911 really stands out!

Back to business. The high that produced the bright, but crisp weather Monday is beating a hasty retreat Tuesday, allowing return flow along with a warming trend. Under partly cloudy skies, readings should push into the low 50s north to the upper 50s south, pretty close to normal.

Wednesday, has the potential to be a chanber of commerce candidate with highs of 70-75 looking likely. With sunshine and light winds, that's a keeper to be sure.

Thursday, a front starts to sink southward across the local area with some clouds and perhaps a few spotty thunderstorms, particularly in the far south. For the most part, available moisture is confined to the mid and high levels of the atmosphere as opposed to the surface where we would like it to be. Additionally, the best forcing is generally right on or behind the front. Those are all big negatives for meaningfull precipitation. Therefore, despite the need for rain, prospects for anything more than .05" appear slim. Here's what the EURO and GFS show for potential rain amounts. The best of the low chances remains south of I-80, especially in WC Illinois where the GFS is a bit more bullish.

The EURO

The GFS

After that, we turn cooler again Friday with highs back in the fresh range of 44 north to 49 south

By Saturday, the main thrust of that chill is already beginning to depart and we should have no trouble getting back into the mid to upper 50s. That leads to even warmer weather Sunday and beyond. In fact, the next 2 weeks on the EURO meteogram look to mighty fine through the first week of April. Take a look.

We touched on rain briefly earlier, and while I see some positives for showers and storms around April 1st and beyond, up until them prospects appear rather lean. These are rain departures on the EURO up to March 31st. We need to turn that around and hope springs eternal for that to happen with the arrival of April.

It looks as though the weather will be our friend through most of Thursday. Greener grass and new buds should make themselves a feature during that time. Imagine what a warm rain would do! Roll weather....TS

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