Hawkeye

Ryan Maue, the former WxBell guy who is building the new site, has the view that everyone should have free access to all the model maps. He said the required fee has been paid.

A thin wave of flurries just passed through Cedar Rapids. We shouldn't see anything more than that, today.

Received a disappointing 0.41" here overnight.

It's looking like my garden will go kaput at the end of the week. The euro has 3-4 days with highs in the 40s, with a couple nights down in the 20s. I hope my hummingbird leaves before then. It doesn't use the feeders, so it'll be in big trouble if the plants freeze and it's still here.

About 36F and a touch of frost here this morning.

This system dropped a disappointing 0.73" in my yard. The expected 2+ inch band of rain just ended up splitting north and south. The nw wind is beginning to pick up a bit. Gusts could be hitting 30 mph in a few hours.

So the euro finally caved to the south shift, now has Saturday's main show missing me to the south. Today's narrow band of heavy rain missed north, and the HRRR has little rain falling here overnight. All week it appeared 1.5-2.0+" was a lock for my area. Now, I'm worried we may end up with a half inch. The latest euro graphic doesn't even have Des Moines getting that much.

Models have been gradually trending south with the heavy rain. A couple models (like the 3k nam) are now keeping the main show tonight and Saturday south of my area, with perhaps only a half inch total falling here. Today's rain appears to be staying north of me.

1.14" in my yard today.

0.90" total here the last couple days.

Models have been trending lower for the last couple days as the first round ended up well south and the second round's forcing has shifted nw. Instead of widespread 2-3+ inches, we have to hope for an inch.

Maue tweeted that WxBell cut off access to his maps when he left, so he will have to re-build them for weather.us / wx.graphics.

The models have backed off a bit on our rain event, but still suggest 1.5-2.0". Next week's cold shot is fading on the models. I don't want to have to cover my plants, so I'm fine with that. Once the hummingbirds are gone after mid-month, I don't care how cold it gets. Happy B-day. I turn 43 on Tuesday. Time sure flies.

I picked up 0.70" overnight from a series of brief downpours.

DVN is thinking widespread 1-3" of rain around here through Saturday morning, with isolated 4-5" totals. I'm really looking forward to getting some heavy rain. It has been a while.

It was mentioned above that the weather.us site has free 3-hr Euro maps. Ryan Maue, the guy responsible for creating the great weatherbell maps, recently left weatherbell to become the COO of weather.us.

There should be a bit of improvement in Iowa on the drought map tomorrow. Since the last update, a strip of 3-6 inches of rain fell from Ottumwa to the Quad Cities, and heavy rain fell in central Iowa a couple days ago as well. Part of the Des Moines area received 3+ inches.

A surprise cell popped up this evening and dropped 0.61" of rain here, my heaviest rain event in over two months. It's great to hear and smell rain again.

We hit 90 again today, although came up a couple degrees shy of the last few days. We have one more very warm day tomorrow(upper 80s), but then get the refreshing air. I'm very much done with this hot stuff.

The CR airport has hit 93 three straight days. Iowa City hit 95 today.

The euro only has the lows in the upper 30s to low 40s. That seems a bit high given the 850 temp. Des Moines nws mentions in their discussion that frost and freeze headlines may be needed.

12z Euro has 50s for highs across Iowa next weekend. How about something in between 90s and 50s?

All of the rain last night fell in a narrow strip. Models suggested I'd get into it as well, but nope. Models now suggest one iffy chance of rain through early October.

I picked up 0.31" of rain overnight, our first rain in weeks.

The CR airport made it to 44 this morning. Here in the city, upper 40s was common.