CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Winds will be even stronger for the second day of the work week, increasing temperatures.

Your first alert: gusts increase Tuesday afternoon

Skies should maintain decent cloud cover throughout the evening and night tonight, although there will be some tendency to clear later tonight. With a continued southerly wind, these clouds and more moisture in the air, temperatures will not drop quickly at all. In the morning, lows in the low to mid 60s will be present.

The start of Tuesday will be a little sunnier, which will contribute to warming temperatures. Clouds will be increasingly present throughout the latter part of the day, resulting in a partly cloudy day on average. No rain is expected, so if you want to experience temperatures in the 80s, this may be the last chance to do so until 2025.

An important feature of Tuesday’s weather will be strong southerly or southwesterly winds, which will start off quite breezy and become stronger in the afternoon. Gusts will easily exceed 30 mph by then, with some locations feeling gusts of 40 mph or more. Although these should decrease slightly in the evening, they will still remain strong until late at night.

Your first alert: stormy weather returns Wednesday afternoon into the night

A cold front will move into the state on Wednesday, bringing a very good chance for more widespread rain and thunderstorms. The start of the day is expected to be mostly dry, although a few showers or embedded sprinkles are possible in mostly cloudy conditions. Temperatures will be mild again, with lows in the 60s and highs on Wednesday reaching the 70s.

Later in the afternoon, an area of ​​rain with thunderstorms leading the way will move east into the TV9 viewing area. These precipitations spread quite slowly, last into the evening and only become more scattered during the night. However, most of it should be gone by the start of Thursday.

The energy needed for storms (which we sometimes call instability) will be somewhat limited, but the winds in the atmosphere will provide sufficient support for the storms. These will show decent changes in speed and direction with height (what we also call wind shear), providing a chance for storms to organize. Some stronger storms could occur in the environment, with a few producing strong wind gusts or hail not being completely ruled out. We will monitor this time frame closely and provide additional updates as we get closer.

Due to the widespread and slow-moving nature of these storms, we could expect some good precipitation. Totals will almost certainly exceed half an inch, with totals between 1 and 2 inches very possible.

A dry and cooler Halloween

For those hoping for more pleasant conditions in time to go trick-or-treating, you’re in luck. The storm system that produces rain Wednesday should be far enough away, especially Thursday evening.

A few clouds are present Thursday during the day with winds remaining a little violent. Much cooler temperatures will also be in place, with highs only in the mid-50s at best. Some spraying is possible early in the day in the north, but most of it should be kept dry.

In the evening, winds should decrease a little and temperatures should drop a little. Expect to be in the 40s on your candy-hunting adventures around eastern Iowa communities.

Friday will be another cool and calm day, with good sunshine. Clearer skies mean temperatures should be able to drop quite well before then, with lows in the 20s lasting longer than 30 seconds. Highs will reach the 50s.

Your first warning: the air will be wet again by the weekend and next week

At least a few storm systems will experience a continued active weather pattern through the weekend and early into the following week. This keeps us in the area where rain will be possible, and it could still be quite widespread and significant.

Showers become possible Saturday, and activity continues through Sunday. Some rumbles of thunder are possible Sunday, although the threat of stronger storms appears a little lower here.

More humidity sets in overnight Sunday into Monday as another disturbance moves through the region. This reinforces the opportunity for some rain of the stuff for most of the TV9 viewing area.

In fact, the combination of rain chances this week and next week, through Monday, could result in precipitation totals between 1 and 3 inches across most of the region. This would do a lot of work to reduce the recent drought conditions here.

Throughout all of this, temperatures remain near or just a little above normal. Highs in the upper 50s to the 60s are possible Sunday through Monday, but we will mostly fall back into the 50s for highs by the end of the 9-day forecast.

Copyright 2024 KCRG. All rights reserved.