MELT, BABY, MELT!

You don't need me to tell you it's nice out or that the snow is melting away. But let's talk about it! Temperatures got well into the 30s and 40s Saturday. Even t 7 pm temperatures remained above the freezing mark:

Here's where the snow depth stood on Saturday morning across the Midwest:

Here's the snow depth from Monday morning, after our last snow:

A big change has occurred, with all of Missouri and most of Illinois losing their snow. We've still got work to do in Iowa where snow has been on the ground for the last 61 days.

Most of us have dropped down below a foot but Cedar Rapids spent 21 straight days with a foot or more snow on the ground -- the third longest such stretch on record!

The melt continues, despite Sunday being a little cooler than Saturday.

It'll be a bit breezy too as a cold front passes through the Midwest. Most of the precipitation remains on either side of Iowa with this system late Sunday morning:

Temperatures will remain near and above the freezing mark to start next week.

Monday's highs:

Tuesday:

The snowpack will continue to shrink. If you're curious about flooding considering all this melting snow, here's what the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities has to say about it:

River levels continue to show small within bank rises at some
forecast points due to recent snowmelt across river basins in
northeast Missouri, southeast Iowa, and west central Illinois.

Many of these basins now have no snow on the ground. Further north
where snow is still on the ground, there is a lot of water in the
snowpack. With overnight lows and highs above freezing through
Sunday, followed by about 36 hours of colder weather, expect more
melting to occur at a relatively slow pace. This will result in
minor rises on area streams/rivers, with no flooding expected. No
notable rainfall is expected in the next week, and that`s great news!

We'll talk more about how much warmer temperatures will get and how long this pattern last in my next post.

Enjoy the thaw!

RK