Hawkeye

The HRRR nailed the wave 1 dud for Cedar Rapids, and now it's doing the same thing for wave 2.

It appears more tornadoes are popping out of several cells south of Des Moines

I got 0.08" of rain this morning. Models were so bad. Maybe I can get a bit more today. The Saturday night wave had better deliver.

Unfortunately, it appears the dry models are going to be correct for us this morning. An area of rain is trying to lift up into my area, but it is really drying out. You just can't expect any heavy rain when the freakin dewpoint is in the 30s. I'm tired of this crap. To get heavy rain, we need the dewpoint to be in the 60s and 70s.

The Euro is one of the models that has really dried out wave #1 for Iowa.

For days I've been excited about storms and heavy rain this weekend. However, as is the case all too often, models are backing off as we approach the start. Some models are drying out my area big time. Instead of 2+ inches, there are now models showing less than a half inch Friday and less than an inch total all weekend. Regarding the first wave on Friday, it has slowed and it doesn't arrive here until midday Friday when the storms are crapping out. The second wave is still very up in the air. A few models insist there will be a plume of heavy rain from Missouri up through southeast Iowa. Other models (Euro) say the heavy rain will be in northern Iowa into Minnesota, with no heavy band from Missouri into southeast Iowa. Once again, I am having to greatly lower my expectation and just hope we can get an inch out of this entire weekend. On top of the BS this weekend, there is suddenly a trend on some models toward early May being much less warm and active compared to what they've been advertising in recent days.

Euro ensemble avg next 15 days. That is what I want.... warm, stormy, wet.

I covered several budding plants with multiple layers of protection. The NWS lowered our low to 26º, but, fortunately, here in town we only dropped to about 30º, similar to the previous night. Yesterday sucked, barely making it over 40º. I'm ready for this stuff to be over.

I got 0.36" of rain today, pretty close to the middle of the model range. The grass is very lush and green. Cedar Rapids has been downgraded from "extreme" drought to "severe".

The second line looked promising for a while, but it was very thin and raced through in only a couple minutes. My event rain total is 0.67". I'll take it, but it's much less than what models were spitting out a few days ago.

I got lucky. A heavy cell passed just west of Cedar Rapids and another heavy cell moved up through the middle of Cedar Rapids. I just barely got caught inside the western edge of the eastern cell. There was barely any thunder, but it was gusty and the rain was very heavy. I finished with 0.57". Only one mile to my west only 0.12" fell. I wasn't expecting much from the secondary line, but it is actually really beefing up. There is a nasty cell near Ottumwa.

Radar shows a hole in the line moving into Cedar Rapids. It'll probably be June before we get a decent thunderstorm.

The dewpoint has risen nearly 30º since sunrise, but thick clouds have prevented any insolation across Iowa.

Radar sure doesn't look like a severe event. It's just a wide band of showers with embedded brief downpours.

As expected, overnight was a total bust. Strong east wind is pumping very dry air into eastern Iowa. On top of that, the entire area is covered in thick clouds. At this point I'm hoping we can get a half inch of rain.