Midwest Weekly Highlights - December 18-24, 2018

More Warmth

Temperatures were even warmer than the previous week across the Midwest (Figure 1).  Most of northern Illinois, northern Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota were 8-12°F above normal, while the remainder of the region was 4-8°F above normal.  Minimum temperatures were even warmer across Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, where some areas were as much as 16°F above normal (Figure 2).  Many daily high minimum temperature records were broken across the Upper Midwest as a result (Figure 3).
 

Very Dry

With no major storms across the Midwest during the week, precipitation values were lower across most of the region (Figure 4).  Large portions of Iowa and Minnesota had little to no precipitation during the week, while Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri had less than a quarter inch in most areas.  This was less than a quarter of the normal amount in many cases (Figure 5).  The only areas with above-normal precipitation were in Ohio and eastern Kentucky.  Amounts of 0.75 to 2.00 inches were recorded.

Snow was limited to the northern reaches of the Great Lakes (Figure 6).  Values of 2-4 inches were common across extreme northern Minnesota and northern Michigan.  Light lake-effect snow also fell in northeastern Ohio off of Lake Erie.
 

-BJP-