US Midwest weather latest

(Freese Notis) -- For a lot of places in the Midwest, the weather over the next two to three days will be about as hot as it has been so far this summer, but it still looks like that heat is not going to last for very long. Especially areas west of Interstate 35 will reach the 90 degree mark for today's high temperature, but highs above the 90 degree mark should be pretty common for tomorrow just about anywhere in the Corn Belt.

That heat is pressed southward into just the southern third of the region for Saturday, and the cooler weather seen that day in the northern Corn Belt looks to dominate the entire region then for Sunday through about Tuesday (or even Wednesday as it pertains to eastern parts of the region). Especially the northeastern half of the Midwest could see two to even three days during that time frame in which high temperatures do not climb above the 80 degree mark.

We will see warming temperatures for later next week, with some signs that notable heat could be impacting especially western parts of the region for July 20 and beyond.

Rain that fell in the Midwest the past 24 hours was extremely spotty in nature (most places got nothing), and a few isolated thundershowers were still shown in parts of the region early on this Thursday (with a more concentrated area of rain found in northeastern Nebraska). Almost any location in the Corn Belt could see a widely scattered storm over the next 24 hours as warmer air works into the region, then a strong cold front diving southeastward will be the next threat of rain, first for northwestern part of the region (tomorrow and tomorrow night) and then in the southeastern areas (Saturday and Saturday night).

There could be a fair amount of severe weather activity with the cold frontal passage, but widespread rains of more than a half inch probably will be most common only in areas near the Great Lakes. The set-up for rainfall for the middle and latter parts of the next week is looking pretty decent for northern and northwestern parts of the region, which is an area that could use some rain right now (northern Nebraska, eastern South Dakota and all but extreme southeastern Minnesota have recorded below-normal rainfall over the past 30 days, with some places recording less than half of their normal totals during that period).