High pressure moves over the state today and will yield good sunshine to start. However, clouds will build later this afternoon as we start to see the outer bands of action swing into the eastern corn belt from that huge storm complex in the plains. Temperatures today will be mostly near normal, and will even climb a bit late in the day as south winds start to really kick in.
Tomorrow starts a wet 48-hour period over the state, although we see most of tomorrows action staying north of I-70. Scattered light showers will be the main feature, with about 70% coverage from I-70 north. Heavier rains develop tomorrow night, and then continue through Thursday. Rain will be moderate to heavy in spots and we also will not rule out a few afternoon and night time thunderstorms Thursday night. Rain totals for the 2-day period will be from .25”-1.25” with coverage at 90% of the state – an extra 10% can see slightly higher totals, but we see full 100% rain coverage here. See the map above. Thunderstorms should be limited mostly to the southern half of the state, but we won’t completely rule out a little action farther north. Mild temps will be seen tomorrow as we move into the 50s and 60s, and on Thursday, we would not be surprised at a move to highs near 70! All of that temperature move comes on strong south flow.
Friday we should be done with precipitation, and temps will start to move back just a bit. We still think we will see temps in the 50s and 60s, before we revert back to normal over the weekend. Saturday can feature a few more clouds and perhaps a few spits and sprinkles, but only 20% coverage.
Beautiful, dry, sunny weather arrives on Sunday with high pressure dominating. The dry pattern holds all the way through next week into the start of the 11-16 day period next Friday. Temperatures will be near normal through the period. Unfortunately, we can’t keep that pattern going for the balance of the extended window.
Scattered showers are back starting Saturday the 23rd. Those will be mostly from I-70 northward and will produce rain totals of a few hundredths to .4” and coverage at 50%. Then we see additional rain, heavy at times, from Sunday through Wednesday, the 27th. It will be mild for that period, but we can see combined rains of 1-2 inches over that stretch.
