SATURDAY "SPECIAL"

We had a heck of a weather hand to play Friday, but the one we're getting Saturday is the one to lay some serious money on. I see a lot of aces on the table, especially considering the time of year. A normal high March 21st ranges from 45 north to 50 south, we are looking a numbers closer to 76-81. For perspective, the average high doesn't reach 80 in Dubuque unitl June 22nd! It's June 9th at the NWS office in Davenport. Anyway, with highs 30 degrees above normal we already have a winner, add to it mosty sunny skies and a 10-20 mph breeze and hey, it don't get much better than that (on a Saturday to boot)!

FIRST DAY OF SPRING BEHIND US...

If you missed it, spring officially arrived at 9:46am Friday morning. It was anything but springlike in the Plains Friday afternoon with Altus, Oklahoma at 101 and Childress, Texas 100, degrees on the dot.

At 5:00pm Friday evening, temperatures were still in the 90s from SW Kansas into Texas. 84 in the SW corner of Iowa.

Again, the reason temperatures can get so darn hot in the Plains is the extremely dry air with relative humidity of 5-10 percent. You would be lucky to pinch out a loan drop of rain in an air mass like that.

At noon Saturday at 500mb (in red) you can see the dome of heat centered over Arizona breaking all kinds of temperature records there. It's expanded enough to send even warmer temperatures to the central Midwest Saturday afternoon. Some could be close to records.

Look at Saturday's temperature departures. Some as much as 40 degrees above normal in Nebraska.

We are going to see a cool-down Sunday with the passage of a moisture starved cold front. It might scare up a shower but they would be brief and light. The front should be near the Quad Cities around noon easing south in the early afternoon. At 7:00am the cold air coming of the remaining snow pack in Wisconsin is grinding south with temperatures that look like this.

At 4:00pm. readings have remained steady on the north and fallen into the upper 40s to low 50s in most of the south.

That results in highs that are at least 30 degrees colder than 24 hours earlier. That stiff NE winds will make it pretty raw. Easy come, easy go.

It does look like the cooler air only lasts a couple days and temperatures should warm again in the long range. The EURO shows this for readings the next 2 weeks. I would gladly take that in March.

A positive to report is that yesterday both the GFS and EURO showed little if any rain through April 3rd. Today, both indicate an opening for a wet pattern to evolve around the 29th or 30th of March. I was really surprised to see how agressive the EURO was with amounts. The GFS has some helpful amounts but is about half the scale of the EURO. Here's what both models are showing.

The EURO: this would be nice.

The GFS, well as I say...is still a keeper.

That's going to do me in tonight. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and can enjoy the special Saturday ahead. Roll weather...TS

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