Springtime Weather Extremes

With spring comes weather extremes. The are several reasons why but one of the most important is advancing warmer air moving north in response to the Sun moving higher in the Northern Hemisphere sky. Storms tend to travel parallel to the boundary dividing cold from warm air.

The map above shows the boundary with a storm centered over southeastern Minnesota. The red and blue dashed lines extending from Canada to the Dakotas, Minnesota, to Wisconsin and Michigan show the greatest temperature change. Generally the change from red to blue lines is the dividing line between rain and snow. Iowa will experience a milder day today as west and southwest winds sweep across the state bringing warmer air from the Plains across the state. Readings will be in the 60s and 70s - a far cry from the colder weather of the past couple of days.

The map is the forecast for 1:00 p.m. CDT this afternoon (Sunday, April 3rd). The bulls-eye over southeast Minnesota is the predicted center of low pressure at 1:00 p.m. In the meantime much colder air and snow occupies the area from northern Minnesota across the Great Lakes to New England.  Springtime does bring extremes across both distance and time.