(Radio Iowa) – Temperatures have shot up into the 80s and 90s today across Iowa. National Weather Service meteorologist, Roger Vachalek says the temperature isn’t the only thing making it warm.  “Along with that you’ve noticed a rapid increase in a humidity level so it feels exactly like you would expect for summertime,” he says, “and that’s going to continue for the next couple of days across the region. A little cooler tomorrow but we’ll be back up again around 88 or 90 come Wednesday, and then Thursday. not so much of a change — and then into the weekend we start to cool off.”

We’ve already seen a lot of ups and downs in temperatures this year — but Vachalek says the next one won’t be as extreme. Gonna be a stairstep. Friday we’ll have a high of around 80 And then Saturday we’ll be back to 77. And then towards Sunday and Monday right around 70 degrees,” Vachalek says “So we really get into somewhat we would call more seasonal weather towards the end of the weekend and into early next week, but for now we’re way above normal or normal highs right around 70 or so this time of the year.” There’s good news for those itching to get their gardens planted.

“We’re probably not going to see freezing temperatures again at least next week it’s just going to be that lows will be in the 40s and 50s,” Vachalek says, “so certainly plants can survive that, and we’re getting past the time of the year when it’s less much less likely to see that sort of thing.” The high temperatures have been accompanied by heavy winds — but that will change.

“A trough of low pressure which is really a wind shift line is going to approach the state. Now keep in mind that it’s going to do a number of things overnight tonight. That is going to bring us a pretty good chance for showers and thunderstorms, especially over northeastern Iowa. And those storms may begin to build back into central and southern Iowa during the later evening and overnight,” he says.”We do have a risk tonight for some strong to severe storms, and maybe some locally heavy rainfall and some of the storms that do get going.”

“The winds will die off but we will have a threat then for some severe weather as we get into the nighttime hours tonight, especially in parts of Northern Iowa and then possibly extending back into southern Iowa a bit later on,” Vachalek says. He says it’s not looking like we will get many record highs today.