Forecast: Humidity and Storm Chances Return, and a Look at Rivers

It’s been a fantastic weekend across central Iowa, with temperatures cooling and dewpoints dropping into the 50’s. The respite from the rain has been welcome, especially in flood-ravaged areas. Monday will continue the cool and mostly dry trend, with only a few spotty showers expected in the afternoon and evening.

On Tuesday, all of that changes as dewpoints and temperatures rise and help to fuel two rounds of storms, one early and one late. The Storm Prediction Center has much of the viewing area in a slight risk of severe weather for that timeframe, with wind and hail as the main threats.

Stormpath has the timing of the precipitation on Monday and Tuesday below, with again the best storm chances coming early Tuesday morning and then later in the afternoon and evening as a pair of fronts cross Iowa.

Wednesday looks dry but, again, warm. Storm chances unfortunately return on the Fourth, though the timing is still uncertain. Colorado State’s severe weather algorithm does give us a chance to see stronger storms Thursday, as seen below.

The European model and the Weather Prediction Center’s precipitation forecasts are below and do differ in some areas. We are expecting amounts of over 3″ in a few spots through Friday night. For now, hydrologists at the National Weather Service office in Johnston don’t expect additional river flooding this week. However, any heavy rainfall may prolong existing flooding.

At Algona, the Des Moines River is expected to fall below flood stage early Monday afternoon and continue falling and remain below flood stage.

At Humboldt, he river is expected to continue a slow fall, but remain in major or moderate flood stage through much of this week.

At Ft. Dodge, the river is expected to slowly fall, but remain above flood stage through much of next week.

At Stratford, the river is expected to continue falling slowly, and fall below flood stage Monday evening.

Highs for the upcoming week are below, rising into the 80’s after Monday.

As seen below, it does appear that we could see a cooler and drier period in Iowa from 7/6-7/10 before a return to warmer temperatures.

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