The winter thaw continues with much warmer temperatures possible by the middle to end of next week as a storm system will be moving through the area late Thursday through early Saturday, pumping much warmer conditions to the state on Thursday. The latest MOS data from the GFS model run this past evening shows highs forecasted to be in the 40s across far northern Iowa and Minnesota and Wisconsin, with 50s across a large portion of the state, with a few 60s possible in far southern Iowa where there will be less snowpack (or possibly none by that time) It’s too early to determine if these temperatures will verify or not. Given possible fog with the melting snow and cloud cover, temperatures could be held down by 5-10° from what you see on the image, but more and more it’s looking like it will be a very warm day Thursday across the state, with some of the warmest readings since right before New Year’s.

Colder and more February like air moves back in for the following weekend with highs back into the 20s and 30s by that time with a chance of some snow showers early on Saturday as the storm departs the area.