NATURAL AIR-CONDITIONING

A nice fresh air mess is perched over the Midwest and will see to it that the weekend is chalked full of natural air conditioning. This is the second surge of fall-like conditions to make headway into the region over the past 10 days. It's certainly quite the departure from what the bulk of summer was like. For the months of June through August (meteorological summer) most of the region averaged 1-2 degrees above normal with Cedar Rapids warmest at +2.3 F.

As you can see, much of the central Midwest, Great Lakes, and Ohio Valley were involved in the warmth.

It's one thing to be warm, it's another to be humid, and that combination was a force this year. Steve Gottschalk in Lowden, Iowa (Cedar County), recorded his 7th warmest summer there. He registered 27 days with 90 degree temperatures and 27 with a heat index of 100 or more. He had 68 days with dew points of 65, 52 at 70, 34 at 75, and 6 days at an extremely tropical 80 or more. The vast amounts of moisture made it one of the more uncomfortable summer's in recent memory. It also led to some gully washers. Steve measured 19.70 inches of rain, good for his 10th wettest summer. Most of my area had 15–20 inches of rain, which has produced some amazing crops.

The air-conditioners got a real work out this summer, but for early risers today, you may need to switch to the heater to take the chill out of the air. It remains to be seen if we make it this cold, but the 3k NAM shows lows in the upper 30s Saturday morning in some of my northern counties. That's right in there with records for the date. With winds rapidly decreasing overnight, it's not out of the question if skies can remain clear.

The GFS is a touch warmer and is probably a more reasonable solution.

No matter how you slice it, early fall conditions will be with us all weekend, with plenty of sunshine. Highs will reach the low 60s north on Saturday, with upper 60s far south. Temperatures bottom out again around 40 Sunday morning, with an afternoon recovery into the mid to upper 60s. Nice stuff.

PLAN A VISIT TO MY 5 STAR GALENA AIRBNB

My 5-STAR AIRBNB just outside of Galena still has some openings this summer. All of our ratings are 5 star! We take pride in the amenities and the cleanliness. If you book now, we'll take off $200, and we can eliminate AIRBNB fees and additional costs that will save you big bucks. Other discounts apply. Call or text Carolyn at 563-676-3320 for our best deal of summer. See more at https://www.littlewhitechurchgalena.com/

WARMER WEATHER RETURNS...

Starting next week, ridging becomes dominate, and we should see a respectable warming trend that gets highs close to normal or maybe a bit above my midweek. An 80 degree high looks possible Wednesday, especially from about I-80 south. The EURO meteogram shows the building warmth nicely Monday into Thursday.

As I alluded to in my last post, we have entered into a dry looking pattern with meager moisture and minimal dynamics. The GFS indicates this for total rainfall the next 2 weeks, with the prime storm track remaining well off to the northwest.

Departures locally over that 2-week period are nearing 2 inches. And It's not just here. The whole eastern half of the nation is dominated by high pressure and subsidence, resulting in a huge area of below normal precipitation.

Frankly, it looks like an uneventful period of weather ahead that has great promise to be very much on the pleasant side. Nothing to do but appreciate it! Have a terrific weekend and roll weather...TS