Midwest Weekly Highlights - January 15-21, 2015

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Drier Than Normal Conditions Continue For Most

Major winter storms continue to avoid the Midwest, leading to lower precipitation amounts for most of the region over the week (Figure 1).  Brief clipper systems brought some snow to Minnesota and Wisconsin with higher amounts of snow along the Great Lakes (Figure 2).  Little to no precipitation was seen in southwest Iowa, northern Missouri and central Illinois.  This drier pattern led to below normal precipitation for most (Figure 3).  The most below normal areas were south of the Ohio River, with mainly near normal precipitation in Minnesota, northern Iowa and western Wisconsin.  These dry conditions continue to stress moderate drought conditions (Figure 4) in western Kentucky and the Missouri bootheel while abnormally dry conditions persist in most of Minnesota with near normal precipitation.
 

January Thaw

After a cold first half of the month, temperatures rebounded and melted a good portion of the snowpack in the southern parts of the region (Figure 5).  Temperatures across the region were above normal with readings 10-18 degrees above normal across Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.  Temperatures ran 6-12 degrees above normal throughout Missouri and Illinois as well as along the Ohio Valley.  Michigan and northern Ohio were near to 5 degrees above normal over the week.  Despite the warmer weather, temperatures are still mostly below normal for the month (Figure 6).
 

-BJP-