SO LONG SWEET SPRING...
- 19 minutes ago
- 3 min read
A SINCERE AND HOPEFUL MESSAGE
Friends and lovers of weather, it's imperative that you know I must reach my financial goal or it's time for me to hang it up after 50 years. I'm doing the best I can here to win your support, and rest assured there is no pleasure in asking for money. I get that its hard times and that's why I'm doing all I can to keep TSwails a no pay site. No matter what, I'm here through December, but the 14th year beyond is dependant on you. If you can help my cause, I'm making a humble plea for anything you can swing, it all adds up. I'm $2,095 dollars (or 88% from my goal). Last but not least, I earnestly thank the 318 amazing individuals who have made such gracious contributions. You are all true treasures! Roll weather...TS
WHIPPING UP A CHILL...
We are on the final leg of our powerful storm which provided a lot of variety in terms of temperatures, precipitation amounts (as well as type). It was one of those classic spring storms that explodes out of the gate and rapidly intensifies. Just look at the dynamics it had to work with within the state of Iowa. Temperatures around 4:00pm. ranged from 25 in NC Iowa to 63 in Keokuk. That's is a stout baroclinic boundary that storms can thrive on.
Another necessary ingredient was moisture, which was certainly there in SE Iowa where dew points were near 50, while to the opposite extreme were only around 15 in NW Iowa.
That stark contrast from moist to dry, and warm to cold, was created by a deepening surface low that eventually passed over the Quad Cities Thursday evening.
There was also a nice closed 500mb low that rolled across Iowa providing the vertical lift to support precipitation. Unfortunately in this type of set up, the heaviest precipitation falls northwest of the surface low which for the most part, was west of the Mississippi locally. Amounts over an inch fell in parts of NE Iowa.
The upper air pattern above was also responsible for severe weather in parts of Illinois and Indiana. Up to 7 tornadoes were reported, largely in Illinois with 43 reports of hail. Some small hail fell in my far SE counties with thunderstorms that developed there.
Then of course, there was the snowy side of the storm which blasted the area from SW Iowa into the central and northeast parts of the state with some double digit snowfall totals. These are snow totals as of 2:00am with more to add through Friday morning.
My area just missed out on a big wet snow with the deformation band wrapping around the low just to our northwest. We are shown getting into some wrap around snow late Thursday night and early Friday as colder air changes any lingering precipitation to snow. An inch or two is possible in my counties NW of a line from Cedar Rapids to Dubuque. What you see below is what the HRRR depicts from 4:00am to roughly 10:00am. Much of the region has a chance of seeing at least a dusting, the heaviest NW of the Quad Cities.
The EURO has this for the same time period.
What will be a huge jolt is the temperatures that crash into the range of 27 to 32 from NW to SE and pretty much hold there the balance of the day due to strong cold air advection. At noon, the EURO shows this.
Here's where things get ugly, a rapid pressure rise behind the storm center will lead to winds of 40-45 mph. It's really going to howl out of the northwest.
The wind leads to wind chills in the range of 10-20 degrees from NW to SE. After several days in the 60s, with one day in the 70s in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and Moline, that is a rude awakening that winter ain't dead yet!
It doesn't get any warmer the rest of the weekend either with mainly 20s Saturday and teens to low 20s Sunday. Monday will be another cold day before temperatures bounce back above freezing reaching at least 40 to 45 Tuesday. If things go the way of the EURO, we could be back around 60 next weekend.
Batten down the hatches, we've got a windy cold day ahead which will include some snowflakes, especially in the morning hours. Roll weather...TS ON A SERIOUS NOTE, IF I CAN'T MEET MY FINANCIAL GOALS, THIS WILL BE THE LAST YEAR OF THE SITE. IF YOU LIKE THE CONTENT, THE FUTURE IS UP TO YOU. T.S. 88% to my goal.
