Breaking Records And Getting Ready For Rain

by Angela Schilling, Meteorologist
March 10, 2012 10:55 PM


It has been a mild winter this year and now a pleasant start to spring as well.  Highs on Saturday were well above average with several records broken throughout the region, including Sioux Falls for March 10th.  With southerly winds, warm air was able to pump into the region and combine with a ridge of high pressure aloft to make for a gorgeous first half of the weekend.  Heading into Sunday afternoon we’ll start to see some changes with highs in the upper 50’s and lower 60’s.  We could also see some light rain heading into late Sunday night and extending through Monday morning. 
The image below shows the highs for Saturday with old records on the left and Saturday’s highs on the right.  The cities that broke records are shaded in pink on the left.  Sioux Falls broke their old record by one degree for March 10th with 72 degrees.  Overnight lows were quite mild as well, with temperatures into the upper 30’s and lower 40’s, so during the day many of us jumped a good 30 degrees or so, all thanks to a strong ridge in place and a southerly breeze.



As the ridge begins to break down it will make way for our next area of low pressure to make its way into our neck of the woods by Sunday night into Monday morning.  The showers will be light and will exit the region by early Monday afternoon.  Rain totals will be less than a quarter of an inch, with sunshine expected north of Highway 14.  Models have been wavering up and down over the last several days, sometimes showing us dry and other times showing rain in the southeast.  The latest model runs show around a tenth of inch possible in Sioux Falls by Monday morning.  It’s a pretty fast moving system as well, so it should give way to lots of sunshine by the time the afternoon rolls around.  Despite the early morning clouds, temperatures will still be quite mild, with highs into the 60’s.  Once we get past Monday another mild week is in store with highs close to around 70 degrees.  Last year, Sioux Falls had highs in the 30’s the majority of the time, with a few 60-degree days here and there.

Sunday Evening...light rain showers in northwest Iowa


By Monday morning light rain could clip the southeast


Last year we were in the 30's 12 times, and not once did we make it into the 70's!