Iowa Weather Report January 12th 2014 – Iowa Weather Network Archives

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QUICK SHOTS: It will be very warm today with readings in the upper 30s northeast through the lower 50s in the south and southwest. This will melt quite a bit of the snow on the ground across the state. A cold front will move through the state later tonight into early on Monday that will drop the readings back into the upper 20s and lower 30s across the area. Moisture will be limited with this frontal passage with perhaps only a flurry possible. Another disturbance comes on the heels of the front late Monday night into Tuesday with a better chance of seeing some light snow or flurries. Accumulations up to an inch are possible but most will see a half inch or less at best. Tuesday will be cooler with readings mainly in the 20s across the area under partly to mostly sunny skies. A warm front moves in Wednesday which will boost temperatures back to near 30 or so, but the quick shot of cold air comes back early Thursday with temperatures likely falling through the day with some chances of light snow or flurries at that time. Friday and Saturday will be cool with partly to mostly sunny skies and highs in the upper teens through the middle 20s.

COLDER END: The GFS and other models have been hinting at another cold blast from the north toward the end of the month. This run shows it with a system on the 20th followed by another on the 23rd and another on the 26th into the 27th that will keep readings below seasonal levels for the middle to end of January. It doesn’t look like it will be as cold as what we had last weekend into early this past week, but we could see some subzero lows once again if this happens to be correct. What is also notable is the lack of moisture with any of these systems (except the last one on the 26th and 27th). Most of the precipitation is shown to be falling over the Great Lakes with little more than just a few flurries or light snow showers around here. Even with a little more substantial snow possible with the last storm, this pattern is somewhat troubling given the fact that we are going to be melting quite of a bit of the snowpack today and over the next few days with sunshine and temperatures close to the freezing mark. If we were to go two weeks with hardly any accumulating snow, this could spell bad news for farmers this upcoming growing season regarding soil moisture. We certainly don’t want to start a 3rd year in a row with inadequate moisture in the ground. We’ll continue to watch for this trend to continue on model runs.