WINTRY START, SUMMERY END...
Mother nature has been playing nasty games with us since the beginning of April. We've seen rain, a little bit of snow, and a whole lot a cool weather. So far April is running well below normal with temperature deficits of 4-6 degrees common.
The next few days won't help those numbers but by next weekend, another potent storm will bring a significant warm-up that might get some of us our first 80 degree high of the year. Yes!
Before I get to that, rain and snow clipped much of the area Sunday night and in some spots some slushy accumulations occurred. In southeast Iowa, New London reported 1.5 inches of snow and Burlington was right behind with 1.2 inches. In Iowa City where I was, a nice snow shower around 9:00pm produced a minor dusting before it quickly ended around 9:30. South of Des Moines Lacona, Iowa picked up 4.2 inches. It's ironic that some places ended up with a white Easter instead of a white Christmas which was plenty green thanks to a Christmas Eve high of 60 in the Quad Cities. Crazy.
Here's a revealing picture I obtained from the NWS in the Quad Cities of snow whitening the ground around New London, Iowa late Easter afternoon. It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas, just a few months late!
Any residual snow showers will end very early Monday. In those spots where any snow did manage to accumulate on grassy and elevated surfaces, look for it to quickly melt. That leaves us with a windy raw day. Gusts of at least 40 mph are expected in the afternoon. Monday morning with temps in the low to mid 30s wind chills are expected to plunge into the mid 20s. Dang, that's lame.
Eventually highs should make it into the 40s later in the day.
That's still no bargain as highs like that are 15 to 18 degrees below normal.
This recent surge of cold air will be slow to depart and that means temperatures will remain chilly through mid-week with highs Tuesday and Wednesday in the upper 40s to mid 50s, a solid 10-15 degrees below the norms. There's also another rain system pegged for Wednesday. It looks like there should be enough forcing and moisture for light to moderate rain totals in the range of 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Here's what models are currently depicting.
The EURO
The GFS
Once we get on the backside of the midweek storm, return flow kicks in with moderating temperatures. By Saturday highs in the range of 75 to 80 are on the table. You can see the 6 day temperature trend and weekend warm-up on the EURO meteogram.
At some point showers and thunderstorms are likely next weekend. Friday and perhaps Saturday night or Sunday are windows with higher rain potential. There's also a chance of strong to severe storms at some point in that time frame. It's far too early to get precise with timing, amounts, or severe weather potential. All I care about is that temperatures warm up for a couple of days.
Well, I guess that's where I will end it tonight. I really didn't want to see anymore snow this spring but I did enjoy the little burst I got to see Sunday evening. Some nice fat beefy flakes. My guess (and I hope it's correct) is that's the last time I see snowflakes for at least six months. Have a good day and roll weather...TS
