Monday Morning Weather 7/20/2026

[00:00:00]Here's your Storm [music] Alert Weather 7 forecast.

[00:00:03]>> Good Monday morning. I'm Storm Alert Weather 7 Meteorologist Brandon Libby.

[00:00:06]Here's what we're tracking for today.

[00:00:08]Really, it's been poor air quality out there this morning with the wildfire smoke and the haze. That should improve actually after roughly the mid to late morning hours and that's as the rain is coming through. So, a little bit rainy and stormy this morning. There's going to be a second round of strong to severe storms on the way this afternoon. That's after of course the dangerous heat and will build up. We're talking a heat index over 100 degrees. So, we're really just throwing all of the active weather for this week into today. The rest of the week will be very, very nice. With the air quality alert in effect until 11:00 a.m. That's for the entire eastern side of the state. And again, that rain is coming through should help alleviate things. Warm front is also going to be approaching and then moving through and that should push a lot of the haze out to the east. Now, we do have a cold front that will come through later on today and through the evening. With that will come a little bit more haze. So, another reduction in air quality possible for tonight and early tomorrow morning, but I do think that will improve throughout tomorrow afternoon and shouldn't have too many issues with the air quality or the smoke really for the rest of the week. Now, we're also tracking a heat advisory. This will go into effect at noon and will continue through 8:00 p.m. Especially for our western and southern counties. That's where the heat index could climb over 100 degrees up to about 105. So, that humidity is going to be very oppressive out there today. We're talking dew points into the mid 70s and high temperatures in the low 90s. So, very warm, very humid, very unstable air. And so, as that cold front will then approach in the afternoon and evening, it's going to spark up another round of storms. Level three out of five risk of severe weather for most of eastern Iowa.

[00:01:54]And with that, we're going to look at mainly a threat for damaging wind gusts, but we can't rule out a few tornadoes along the way and also some large hail, especially as the storms begin to develop. Quarter to golf ball size hail is possible, then it'll transition more to a wind and an isolated tornado threat. Uh that's going to be uh from roughly, we'll say 1:00 p.m. at the earliest through midnight at the latest, but I would say most of the action probably between about 2:00 and 8:00 p.m. Uh we'll estimate. A lot will have to do with the morning activity.

[00:02:28]How long does that linger? That's going to have a big influence on what happens for the second half of today. It does look like one or two rounds of rain and storms moving by this morning to about midday. I'm not anticipating much severe on that, but certainly some gusty winds and some heavy rain for the first round or so. And then a brief break where things heat up. This is going to be after again about 2:00 p.m. You get the second round that's going to develop.

[00:02:55]Pretty individualized storms to begin with. That's where the hail is a little bit more favored, maybe a tornado threat, too. But that will eventually grow into a line of storms as it moves southeast. That will become more of a damaging wind threat there, which will have through the evening commute and the early to mid evening. Eventually, it's going to push to the south and then will become dry for tonight and everything looks much better for the next several days. Now, it is going to be breezy today, too, gusting uh 25 mph from the southwest, sustained winds 10 to 15.

[00:03:28]Cold front comes by, winds will shift to the northwest tomorrow and then even gustier. These gusts are around 30 mph, and that's going to really cool things down. Dew points drop significantly into tomorrow, and then it's very refreshing air Wednesday, Thursday. That's as the highs will drop down into the 70s with lows in the 50s. So, we just got to get through today. It's going to be hot, humid, breezy, hazy, and a chance for storms along the way. Tonight, the storms end will have lows down into the 60s and low 70s, and then tomorrow we're looking partly cloudy and windy with highs in the upper 70s to about the low 80s. There you see the mid-70s on the way Wednesday, still partly cloudy.

[00:04:11]We're going to be dry for the rest of the week. In fact, partly cloudy skies throughout. Still in the 70s there Thursday, and then we'll heat back up over the weekend with highs back into the 90s by Sunday.