The term “polar vortex” isn’t something Iowans usually hear during the summer, but forecasters say a cold front from the far north is making its way into our region. This week’s weather will be unseasonably cool, according to meteorologist Miles Schumacher at the National Weather Service, who says it will seem more like fall much of this week.
“We’ve got a real strong upper level system that’s dropping down out of Canada and it will bring down with it a pretty good shock of cold air that will keep temperatures below normal most of this week,” Schumacher says. “We’ll see temperatures in the upper 40s and 50s for lows and high temperatures in the upper 60s to around 70 in the north and mid to upper 70s in the south.”
Iowa had one of its wettest Junes on record but as we head into mid-July, it doesn’t appear we’ll get much rain at all this week. “We could see a brushing of a few showers and thunderstorms in the far northeast in the cooler air today and we do have an area of light thunderstorms coming out of Nebraska that could brush the south, but other than that, it looks pretty dry until Saturday night,” Schumacher says.
The cool break won’t likely last much into next week as he expects highs to start creeping back toward normal in the 80s and low 90s after the weekend.
(Reporting Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)