Weather Forecast

KCRG TV9 First Alert Forecast For Dubuque and the Tri-States

KCRG Weather Blog

The sweetest moon of them all rises Monday morning

The full moon of each month is named and this one for June is very sweet. It is pegged the “Strawberry Moon.” According to NASA, the moon will be completely full Monday morning around 3:31 a.m. central time. The full moon itself is visible though through Tuesday morning. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, why this one is named the Strawberry Moon is being it is the peak time for harvesting strawberries. In North America, the time to harvest strawberries is very short. This full moon will also be the last one of the spring season as summer officially starts June 21. Other counties and tribes have also named this moon the Mead Moon, Honey Moon, and Rose Moon.

A drier two weeks for many

After relentless rain across the state in April and May, June has been great so far. Aside from a few pockets here and there, rainfall has largely been below normal this month. Many spots have not yet gotten an inch of rain yet in June. Places like Cedar Rapids and Iowa City only have 0.81” to show for the first two weeks. That’s about an inch below normal. No doubt this is welcome for those behind on agriculture work and other outdoor projects! Normal summer rainfall in eastern Iowa is around one inch per week.

Heat ramps up out west

As we look at highs into the 60s Wednesday, the West Coast continues to roast. This is due to an amplified jet stream pattern in which the ridge (and all the heat) has shoved up into western Canada and is baking the West with hot, dry conditions. Record highs are happening over portions of California, Oregon and Washington. To the east where we are, the cool air is diving south, leading us down the path of below normal temperatures for a while. We’ll be saving money on the air conditioning!

Last week was the driest in nearly two months

After a stretch of weather that was wet and cool, we finally turned a corner last week. This week will continue the trend of drier weather, but temperatures will be below normal. Last week’s rainfall of 0.46” was the lowest since the middle of April. And above-normal temperatures have been in short supply until just a couple of weeks ago. Here’s the week-by-week breakdown of Cedar Rapids' rainfall and how far off the average temperature was from normal: April 14-20: 0.20", 0.3 degree above normal April 21-27: 1.05", 0.3 degree above normal April 28-May 4: 1.32", 7.1 degrees below normal May 5-11: 0.64", 4.3 degrees below normal May 12-18: 2.81", 3.3 degrees below normal May 19-25: 1.51", 2.7 degrees below normal May 26-June 1: 2.74", 1.6 degrees above normal June 2-8: 0.46", 3.4 degrees above normal

Below average temperatures for the upcoming week

Starting Monday, we have below average temperatures in the forecast through most of the week. Normally in Eastern Iowa, our high temperatures sit in the upper 70s. We will be in the low to mid 70s is all we will get to this week, keeping very mild conditions around the area. An impending cold front will be pushing through Eastern Iowa Sunday. This is going to bring a wide variety of temperatures throughout the day. This means some of you could experience below average temperatures as early as Sunday. After the cold front pushes through, winds will become strong out of the north and northwest, funneling in much cooler air. High pressure moves in after the cold front, keeping those cooler temperatures in the forecast and fairly dry days until another front comes into the forecast Wednesday.