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WINTER’S RETURN: Winter isn’t over, even with the warmer than average temperatures we’ve been seeing over the last week. Wintry precipitation will be making an appearance over the state late Saturday night through the morning hours of Sunday. There’s a good chance, most of the state will see at least a glaze of ice before temps warm enough that the precip is all rain. The exception is in northern and northeastern Iowa where readings will be near or below freezing the longest. They will have a chance of up to a quarter inch of ice, which may cause some travel problems in those locations.

The next shot will be the snow on the back side of the storm. The latest model run shows most of the heaviest snow will be falling over southern Minnesota, with just the northern two tiers of counties having the best shot of accumulating snow. 1-3″ will be possible by the time the storm ends north of US Hwy 20, with amounts topping 4″ along the IA Hwy 9 corridor northward to the IA/MN border.

MORE TROUBLE AHEAD: Another storm is brewing by the following weekend. There will be more cold air in the state than in the current storm that will be moving through this evening into Sunday. That storm could bring some accumulating snows over the state, with possible freezing rain/sleet over the far SE counties.

MARCH MONSTER?: The end of the Model run shows a VERY large storm over the midwest with heavy snow over Iowa and strong winds out of the north. HOWEVER, the liklihood that will still be there on the next run is very small. The trend for at least the next two weeks is, don’t expect to see temperatures like Thursday anytime soon.