Lingering showers today, but nicer this weekend; update on Iowa tornadoes
Here's a look at one of the tornadoes that touched down in central Iowa on Thursday:
According to Iowa Public Radio, no serious injuries or fatalities have been reported from Thursday's tornadoes:
Gov. Kim Reynolds plans to visit the central Iowa cities of Bondurant, Pella, and Marshalltown Friday. All three communities were hit by tornadoes late Thursday afternoon.
As of Thursday night, no deaths or serious injuries had been reported, but there was a lot of damage.
In Marshalltown, a large twister heavily damaged several buildings downtown, and knocked the spire off the county courthouse. Also, the Lennox manufacturing plant was damaged, as were many other buildings in the area.
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The Storm Prediction Center of the National Weather Service has this plot of all the Thursday tornado reports:
Details of each tornado report, from the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center:
All times listed are in Universal time, which is five hours ahead of Central Daylight Time. For example, a time of 2010 is 2010 minus 5 hours or 1510, which is 3:10 p.m. CDT.
There can be multiple reports of the same tornado, so the final tornado tally is yet to be determined.
The Des Moines, Iowa office of the NWS will be sending crews out today to survey the damage:
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA
648 PM CDT THU JUL 19 2018
...PRELIMINARY STORM SURVEYS SCHEDULED FOR POLK, JASPER, MARION,
MARSHALL COUNTIES JULY 20, 2018...
STORM SURVEYS WILL BE CONDUCTED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
OFFICE IN DES MOINES FOR STORM DAMAGE CAUSED ON JULY 19, 2018. TWO
SURVEY TEAMS ARE PLANNED WITH ONE TEAM SURVEYING DAMAGE IN POLK,
JASPER, AND MARION COUNTIES. THE SECOND TEAM WILL SURVEY THE DAMAGE IN
MARSHALL COUNTY.
THE RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE SURVEY WILL BE COMPLETED AND
TRANSMITTED VIA A PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT AND ALSO POSTED TO OUR
WEBSITE [WEATHER.GOV/DMX] NO LATER THAN JULY 21, 2018 IF NOT SOONER.
Rain chances
Most of Minnesota will have showers at times Friday, with an isolated thunderstorm also possible over eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin Friday afternoon and early Friday evening.
Saturday should be dry for most of us, but northeastern Minnesota could see a passing shower.
Updated weather information can be heard on the Minnesota Public Radio Network, and updates are also posted on the MPR News live weather blog.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Forecast System model shows that parts of Minnesota could see some showers late Tuesday into Wednesday:
The color chart to the right of the loop refers to the precipitation rate (mm per hour), not to the total amount of rain.
Temperature trends
Highs in the 70s will be common across Minnesota this Friday afternoon.
There will be a lot of 70s on Saturday too, with a few spots from the Twin Cities metro area to southeastern Minnesota touching 80:
Many areas will reach the lower 80s on Sunday:
Twin Cities metro area highs are expected to be in the lower 80s Monday, followed by mid 80s Tuesday and around 80 on Wednesday.
Programming note
You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:49 a.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.