315 FXUS63 KARX 121043 AFDARXArea Forecast Discussion National Weather Service La Crosse WI 543 AM CDT Fri Sep 12 2025
.KEY MESSAGES...
- Summertime warmth for the end of the week into early next week as highs surge back into the 80s to even near 90 degrees.
- Scattered storms tonight (30-40%) and possibly Sunday night (10-20%) with periodic rain chances (20-30%) from Wednesday to Friday of next week.
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.DISCUSSION... Issued at 245 AM CDT Fri Sep 12 2025
Return of Summertime Warmth!
The main story for much of the forecast will be the return of summertime heat. Warmer lower to mid-tropospheric air advects northeastward from the Siouxland region today as 925-700-mb maximum temperatures increase from +12 as of midnight to +20C by the end of the day. South to southwesterly flow remains in place for the weekend and into much of next week, keeping above average temperatures in place during this period.
The warmest days are shaping up to be over the weekend with an amplified meridional upper tropospheric ridge firmly in control. The NBM inputs are all tightly clustered in the mid to upper 80s for Saturday and Sunday with favored valley locales such as La Crosse making a run at 90 degrees. While the EC Extreme Forecast Index has values of 70-80% for Sat-Mon, our daily records in the middle 90s (set back in the 1930s) do not appear to be within reach.
Moving into next week, the aforementioned ridge buckles to the east, but does not break. This keeps the warmer air more or less in place, though temperatures should moderate somewhat owing to an increased potential for showers and storms.
Mostly Dry through Early Next Week
A passing ribbon of 800-700-mb theta-e advection along and north of a surface warm front looks to be enough to spark at least scattered showers and storms later this evening into the overnight hours. Shear profiles are weak/complex and MUCAPE values top out around 500-800 J/kg, thus severe weather is not expected. The 00Z HREF members all showed notable increases in their precipitation coverage for this event and have followed suite with increasing PoPs to around 30-40%.
The next shot of rain comes Sunday night as a sharp upper level wave lifts northward through the Dakotas. With the region still under the influence of the Great Lakes ridge, precipitation will struggle to advance eastward and PoPs are only around 10-20 percent west of the Mississippi River. The ridge shifts eastward just enough by Wednesday to allow the next shortwave to cut deeper into the Upper Midwest, serving as the next potential source of rainfall.
On the whole, given the limited forcing, rainfall amounts from any of these events in the next week should be limited in intensity and scope. That being said, given the summertime moisture in place--PWATs of 1-1.5 inches and deeper Pacific moisture working into the central U.S.--localized mesoscale forcing within the weaker flow pattern could yield targeted regions of higher rainfall amounts of over an inch (noted in the 00/06Z HRRR east of the Mississippi River by Saturday morning).
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.AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z SATURDAY/... Issued at 540 AM CDT Fri Sep 12 2025
LIFR fog and stratus currently over central WI and the Wisconsin River valley lifts by mid-morning. Predominantly VFR conditions are then forecast for the remainder of the TAF period outside of a 30-40% chance of high-based showers moving in from the west after 22Z and departing by 12Z Sat. Winds increase out of the southeast at 5-15G15-25 kts today, strongest west of the Mississippi River this afternoon. Winds subside somewhat after sunset but could still be gustier at higher elevations.
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.ARX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WI...None. MN...None. IA...None.
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DISCUSSION...Skow AVIATION...Skow
NWS ARX Office Area Forecast Discussion