Seven southeast Iowa counties are under a heat advisory until 8 o’clock tonight as high temperatures are forecast in the lower 90s with a heat index over 100 degrees. Several school districts in Iowa are dismissing early due to the steamy weather. Meteorologist Jim Lee, at the National Weather Service in Johnston, says a cold front should move in later tonight.
Lee says, “While it’s going to provide some relief to the northern and northwestern parts of the state in the form of a little bit cooler weather, unfortunately, the front’s going to stall near the Iowa/Missouri border and we’re going to have several upper level systems moving overhead throughout the week that are going to cause a lot of rainfall to form along that old boundary.”
Lee said it’s too early to say how much rain is expected with this system. “It will be highly variable across the state,” Lee says. “Some places will get a little rain and others will get multiple, multiple inches totaled out over several days this week.”
He says it appears the heavier rains will be falling in northern and central Iowa. “The areas that will see the highest rainfall totals will probably be from I-80 north, but it’s hard to say whether the four- or five-day totals might be a couple of inches or even more than that,” he says. The precipitation is expected to pull out of the state by Friday, promising the possibility for a dry holiday weekend.
(Reporting by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)