Warming temperatures this afternoon, but watching storm development north and west

Full sunshine early Tuesday along with a relatively dry air mass will allow temperatures to rise into the middle 80s this afternoon.  Temperatures a few thousand feet aloft are very warm and if we were able to actually get the winds to mix to that height we'd be talking temperatures in the middle 90s!  In fact, areas in northwest Iowa and northeast Nebraska have reached the upper 90s to near 100°! 

A warm front in central Wisconsin extends southeast from La Crosse to just between Madison and OshKosh.  Ongoing showers from the Dakotas earlier this morning have been moving east through Minnesota and into northern Wisconsin.  The warm front has shifted ever so slightly south through the morning but is expected to remain north of the state line.  Further west, a cold front extends from west-central Minnesota to Sioux Falls, SD and into eastern Nebraska.  Ahead of the front dew points, along with the temperatures, have been rising and could be the focus for thunderstorm development later this afternoon and evening.

Areas from the Plains to northern Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan will be watched for storm development later today.  Strong winds within the jet stream remain along the U.S/Canada border so any strong atmospheric lift will be lacking, but both fronts may serve as the focal point for storms in those areas.  If storms were to develop later today storm motion would be from west to east/southeast because that's the direction the winds aloft are flowing from.  If anything does develop in Iowa later today it could move into N. IL and S. WI later this evening and tonight.