In five short weeks winter officially arrives. To that end, the days keep getting shorter and the suns rays less direct. We've lost a lot of daylight since July and without that energy, cold air continues to build at northern latitudes. So far, just bits and pieces of that have made it into the Midwest, but it appears around November 22nd or 23rd, we'll be in line for an air mass that packs a bigger punch. Since the target date for the cold air arrival is still 9-10 days out,

New data has come in regarding the winter ahead. And, with the strongest Super El Niño in decades approaching its peak, the forecast now has only one close match among past Super El Niño winters: 1997/1998. If you don't recall, that winter was very mild across the north, yet it still delivered above-normal snowfall in several regions. Clearly, compared to other super El Nino events (1982/83), (2015/16), this year most clearly aligns with 1997/98 at 500mbs. That makes it a str

A compact clipper streaked across the region Wednesday morning causing quite a ruckus in my central counties. While the track was on the mark along with the axis of rain, models did a horrible job of anticipating the systems overall strength. Strong vertical velocities developed just north of the circulation providing the lift for vigorous thunderstorms with a narrow swath or 1-2 inch rains from NW of Cedar Rapids southeast to the north side ot the Quad City metro and points

It's not very often when you have every reporting station in Iowa in the 60s November 10th. Yet, we did it with ease Tuesday with statewide highs ranging from 63 to 68 degrees. Adding to the overall stature of the day was abundant sunshine and dry air. You can see we weren't the only ones enjoying warmth with about 95% of the nation experiencing above normal readings. A big assist goes to the raging El Nino! Here's what the afternoon looked like from a satellite perspective.

When temperatures are in the 60s like they were Monday, what do you do? I for one grab my fishing pole and hit the Swiss Valley trout stream outside of Dubuque. I fished the entire afternoon in a light sweatshirt without seeing a cloud in the sky. On top of that I caught my limit! It was just me, nature, and a 62 degree temperature, not bad considering a normal high is 48. As has been the case all fall, we're living on borrowed time with regular rounds of Indian Summer weathe