You know, we only hit the 70° mark once in all of October, so to have already done in November feels pretty darn good.  We hit 71° today in Sioux City and here’s a look at how long it’s been since we’ve gotten to enjoy this type of warmth.

The greatest warmth was out west where communities like O’Neill, Creighton, Neligh, and Yankton made it into the 80s.  In fact, the 80° that Yankton saw today was a new record high eclipsing their old record of 78 set in 1987.

And while it wasn’t as warm, it certainly wasn’t bad across northwest Iowa either.

It does look like we’ll keep it in the 60s over the weekend with it getting slightly cooler for next week.

Ron Demers

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If you woke up early Thursday morning and stepped outside, warmth wasn’t the word coming to mind.  In fact, our low Thursday morning was 26°.  But by the afternoon we hit a high of 66° and there was even more warmth to our west.

Thursday's HIghs

Now our eyes will be on a warm front to our west.  This front will work its way across the region and warm more of the Midwest very nicely.  The front by Friday evening will be to the east of Siouxland.

The warmest temperatures will probably be in western Siouxland where there will be fewer morning clouds and the warm front will move through earlier.  The rest of us, while maybe a bit cooler, will still be way above average with all of our highs topping out in the 60s and 70s.  Mild weather sticks with us through the weekend with some cooling by next week.  Enjoy our nice November weather!!

Ron Demers

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The ingredients look to be coming together for a near record Friday and unseasonably warm weekend. It’s only appropriate to talk about November “heat.” I’ve been lucky enough in my 5 yrs at KTIV to experience several 80° days in November, but it takes perfect ingredients that look very similar to what we’ll experience on Friday. Some stats over the last 5 years:

We’ll be tracking the setup for this weekend very carefully as we’ll be near record highs.

Dave Winslow

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After the October we survived, it’s time for retribution! Often times very cold and wet weather can be followed by a reverse at some point…and ours is here for the first week and a half of November. Yes, if you watched my forecasts this morning for the week, I have put in some astounding numbers for the coming weekend as we flirt with record highs.

The airmass flooding the plains will be of Pacific origin as it goes over the Rockies, sinks, compresses, and warms even more. Here’s a snapshot of one of our computer models showing an upper level ridge right now:

Notice it’s still over the Central and Northern Plains on Sunday too:

Confidence at this point is increasing, and if our computer models keep showing this trend it’s going to be almost a done deal.

Dave Winslow

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You can see temperatures were well below normal, and precipitation way above.  In fact, last month was officially the 3rd coldest October on record in Sioux City, being beat out by 1925 and 1917.  Last month was also the wettest October on record ever in Sioux City, a whopping 3.71″ above normal!  That’s almost half an inch above the now #2 spot — 5.30″ in 1979.  Snowfall was another impressive stat from last month.  Sioux City’s 1.8″ ranks as the 10th snowiest October on record.  The top spot for snowfall belongs to 1991 with 9.8″.

Looking at a calendar of last month, its not too hard to imagine that it was wet.  The image below shows all the days where there was at least a trace of rain at the Sioux Gateway Airport, those days are shaded green.  The orange days, all 7 of them, are the day without any type of precipitation at SUX.

It seems that November may be trying to win the favorite month award.  Following the chilly October, November started off with highs across Siouxland in the 60s and even a couple 70s on Sunday.  The rest of the week doesn’t look quite as warm, but high temperatures should still be quite mild.

Mike Zwier

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Whether you’ve been watching me throughout the month or just looking out your window, I’m sure you’re aware that our month of October has been a very wet one.  In fact, it’s the wettest October we’ve experienced in Sioux City since records have been kept. 

And the amazing part of this month isn’t just the amount of rain that fell, but the number of days in which we saw rain.  In fact, assuming we stay dry on Saturday (which we should), we’ll have had a trace or more of rain (or snow) on 24 of our 31 days of October.

November of course arrives on Sunday and I’m happy to report that we should have a mostly dry stretch of weather as we head into our first week of the new month.  Have a great weekend and a safe Halloween.

Ron Demers

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The weather was rainy outside Thursday, but that didn’t keep the 2nd graders at Bryant Elementary and me from having a good time at their school.  We talked about the weather, both outside and what they see on TV.  Their teacher tells me they had really been looking forward to this so I hope they had a good time and learned a little something in the process.  Here’s a couple pictures of my visit.

I told them that it should be drier for their trick-or-treating by Saturday.  I’ll try on Friday to blog about this latest rain that helped break an October rain record here in Sioux City.  Until then, good luck staying dry and thanks again to the Bryant 2nd graders for inviting me there.

Ron Demers

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After a couple of days with the sun, the clouds have moved back in today.  And I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised by that fact.  October has been an unusually cloudy and wet month and the National Weather Service compiled some statistics associated with this cloudy trend.  You can check out that article by going to http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=fsd&storyid=34538&source=0

Now we have to get ready for more rain.  A storm system that is going to give places like Denver, CO, 8 to 12 inches of snow, is going to give us the liquid form of precipitation.  Slight chances of rain could be with us as early as this evening with heavier rain moving in later tonight.  Rain is likely for Thursday with Friday looking a bit quieter at this point.  Here’s some of the rainfall accumulation that could be expected with this system:

Rainfall Forecast Through Thursday

The good news for trick-or-treaters is that we’re still expecting dry conditions for Saturday although temperatures are going to be a little on the cool side.

Ron Demers

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We’ve receivedover 5″ of October rain, we endured the coldest first few weeks of October on record, and we now have the opportunity to change our last week of October forecast for the better.  At one point our computer models were showing us in the 40s with rain and snow From Wednesday into Friday, but it now appears that we’ll be much warmer.  The storms system responsible for the late week frightful weather is actually going to stall over the Rockies, keeping us in what we call southerly flow…all this means is that winds will be out of the south, and this will lead to mild temperatures for the whole week. Here is a jet level model image from Wednesday at 6 pm:

This upper level storm will crash through the region most likely Thursday and Friday, and yes, it does still look like we’ll get some more unwelcome rain, but probably not snow. Halloween? It’s a ways away, but as of right now, it looks partly cloudy, cool, and a bit breezy. Not bad though, right?

Dave Winslow

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I think the rain is getting old for many of us, especially farmers.  We’ve now seen a trace or more of rain on 19 of our 22 days of October and we’re continuing in an active pattern for a while in our forecast.  These last two days have been especially rough with not just some rain, but moderately heavy rain for a prolonged period of time with chilly temperatures to go along with it.  Here’s our rainfall climatology as of 5 pm Thursday.

We might see some snow mix in with the rain tonight with probably less than an inch of accumulation in Sioux City.  But out west there could be as much as 2 to 5 inches of snow where a Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for Antelope, Pierce, and Madison counties.

Hang in there.  This storm system pulls farther east on Friday bringing an end to our precipitation and leaving us with a nice day on Saturday.  As I mentioned though, we are still in the middle of an active 7-day forecast.

Ron Demers

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