hawkeye_wx

It has been storming across eastern Texas for two months.

This morning's Euro has our temperature rising every day for the next ten days. It's looking pretty toasty by late next week. It also has little to no rain for many of us from Iowa to Michigan.

I have to haul all my containers/pots into the garage tonight and cover a bunch of annuals I've recently planted in the ground. I thought for sure I was done with this two weeks ago.

This morning's 0.70" of rain (with a bit of thunder at the start) has boosted my May total to an above-average 4.52". From May 14th-27th, it has rained every day except for one. Of course, that includes even a tiny bit of rain at 12:05am.

The RDPS, NAM, and GFS are all now showing the temp struggling to get out of the low to mid 40s Friday across eastern Iowa. Yikes!

Some red moved over me on radar, but the storm was pretty tame. There was a bit of lightning and thunder, plus 0.39" of rain. There was a solid breeze as the gust front moved through, but it was fairly calm during the storm. In a quiet year like this, I'll take it.

For much of the last week the Thursday system looked like the first chance of real thunderstorm action this year, possibly severe. That's still true from Nebraska into northern Missouri, but up here I'm now just hoping some decent rain holds together as the storms dive well south.

Last week Walmart and Menards were 90% mask. Today they are around 50%.

The first partly sunny day in over a week allowed our temp to reach about 80º. The instability then led to pop-up cells, with the strongest cell moving directly over my yard. I picked up a quick 0.97" of rain. There was very little thunder, but it was the first since April.

We are finally getting some sun mixed with the clouds this morning.

New morning, same thick clouds. This pattern began a week ago.

That is what we were supposed to get today, but the dreary moist plume did not push north and west as expected.

The sprinkles and showers are once again expanding across my area this morning. I like the warmth, but this pattern needs to end asap.

The thick clouds are really getting old. It has been at least a week since we've had morning sun.

A little bit of rain each day has added up to 1.07" over the last week.

I picked up 0.10" of rain yesterday, 0.05" early this morning, and then another 0.13" late this afternoon. Of course, it was cloudy all day again. We've had about an hour or two of sun all week. This gloomy, wet moist plume up through Iowa really needs to go the f away.

It's looking like, perhaps, later next week could be more thunderstorm-active around here. The first frontal passage early in the week doesn't look very active on models.

Cedar Rapids hit 87º on May 1st and 85º on May 2nd. CR officially just hit 70º for the first time since May 2nd. Two 70+ days from May 1-18 is the least number since 1945.

Only 0.28" of rain here today.

Thank god we're about to get out of this garbage weather pattern. Each of the last four days has gotten worse. Today is pretty lousy with wind-driven very light rain and chilly temp.

The big warmup has been pushed back to Wednesday. Clouds and sprinkles/showers held us in the low to mid 60s Saturday and Sunday, and today is no different. It's breezy today as well, so it's rather chilly. Tuesday could be a washout, which will hold us down again.

I also had not received any vaccinations for many years, but I was not concerned at all getting the COVID shot. I figured, at worst, I would get a brief headache or feel tired. Ultimately, I could not even feel being stuck by such a tiny needle (I used to donate plasma and they use a much larger needle) and I experienced no side effects other than a slighly sore upper arm for a day or two after each shot. Getting the two shots was a nothingburger experience. Now I am likely protected against any severe COVID symptoms if not completely immune. Getting the shots was an easy choice for me.

Terrified of what? Side effects?

Some decent rain fell across eastern Iowa overnight. I received 0.39".

A few days ago I posted qpf maps through next week for the GFS and Euro. Unfortunately, the dry GFS is looking more correct. The Euro surged moisture and storms up into the lakes, but that is looking unlikely. This weekend's rain has mostly vanished and now it may be at least mid next week before anything can lift up into our region. The latest Euro now has nothing until Thursday. Ugh.