An east-west split in the temperature anomaly field for the week of the 18th; warm in the east (very warm Midwest and Ohio Valley), near normal over the Rockies, and cool in the west.

This week features a strong upper trough over western Canada that slowly tracks toward northern Quebec by mid week, lifting the jet stream well to the North. Today we expect strong storms over western Iowa and western Wisconsin as the cold front from the Canadian System creeps slowly east through those states. A weak upper disturbance over the SE that brought record rainfall to the FL panhandle during the last few days is lifting toward the Ohio Valley. To start we have a cool NW, above average temperatures in TX, the southern plains, the Midwest and northern Ohio Valley. As the Canadian trough tracks to the NE, it leaves much of the US in a relatively weak W-E flow aloft, and by midweek temperatures will recover over much of the west and slowly heat through the midsection, spreading to the NE only after the Ohio valley upper disturbance finally moves offshore next weekend.

East of a line from Detroit to New Orleans looks quite wet this week, with subtropical air in place or streaming into the region, bringing frequent thunderstorms and heavy - sometimes flooding - rains. Especially wet over the SE.