The same storm system that brought ice to northwest Iowa Monday night into Tuesday will now give a shot of snow for all of Iowa before slowly exiting east. An arctic blast may follow this, so read on for the full details...
The powerful pacific storm system continues to slowly meander its way north and east today through late week. So, we will start off this afternoon with scattered snow showers, pesky at times, working into western Iowa and I expect this activity to stay confined to areas west of highway 169 through late this afternoon. By this evening, this wave will slowly press east toward central Iowa. At this same time, moderate to heavy rain will work into extreme east/northeast Iowa transitioning to heavy wet snow overnight.
Once Thursday hits, the center of the upper level low will move over northwest Iowa which will bring the light/moderate snow risk into all of the state with strong west/northwest winds gusting 30-55 MPH. Also want to note the pesky snow showers Thursday morning in eastern Iowa which will drop visibility quickly in bursts of snow. Additional wrap around scattered snow showers and gusty winds are expected overnight into Friday through early Saturday before this system will finally lift east of the state.
Most of the snow accumulation will come for you on Thursday but today through Friday is the forecast I'll give for the rest of the event. Total snowfall accumulation of a trace-2" expected for the southern portion of Iowa with the higher totals off into much of northern Iowa.
Earlier this month I mentioned of an arctic blast with a rough time frame of Dec. 17-29th and we may be on track for that to hit much of next week. A strong high can surge cold air down into Iowa as soon as this weekend with the well below normal temperatures hitting as early as Tuesday and maximizing next Thursday/Friday. This will bring wind chill values a good 15-30 below for the first half and once we max out, could easily push 30-40 below wind chill values late next week. On top of that, we may have another weak system around the 19th, but the next main system will hit Dec. 21-23 and could very well be a statewide event with a high snow ratio given much colder temperatures. I'll likely have another follow-up article to this once we are closer.
Stay tuned to Iowa Storm Center.com for updates...
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