Iowa Weather Report January 18th 2014 – Iowa Weather Network Archives

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WEEKEND FUN: A clipper system will move through the state today bringing some accumulating snows to the eastern half of the state. Some of the snowfall amounts could be in the 2-4 inch range across a swath from north-central into East-Central Iowa. Winds will be a factor as well but will not be as strong as they were back on Thursday with the blizzard conditions in some areas. Highs today will be in the 20s east to lower and middle 30s west where some sunshine could peak through the clouds. Sunday will be a totally different story. Skies will be mainly sunny, temperatures will be in the 30s and 40s across the state leading to some snow melt. You better enjoy this day, because the next two weeks thereafter don’t look promising for seeing anything resembling these readings for a while.

POLAR AIR RETURNS: Next week we’ll see readings dropping below seasonal levels for the middle to end of January. Cold arctic air will take hold of the area and looks to stick around for the foreseeable future. Some flurries or light snow showers are possible Monday afternoon and evening with the first wave, while another may clip the state on Wednesday morning with some snow in the far northeastern counties of the state. Another system late Thursday night into Friday may bring some more flurries or light snow showers to the state as well. Readings will be wide ranging depending on snow cover. Currently the southwestern counties of the state have little if any snow cover on the ground. This would keep temperatures a bit warmer while the northern and eastern counties will have snow and more of it with these systems today and into next week thus keeping readings cooler there. We could easily see a 20-25 degree swing in temperatures from northeast to southwest for highs next week.

EXTENDING THROUGH THE COLD: Another push of cold air arrives next weekend with some snow possible mainly across the Great Lakes but we could see some flurries or light snow showers here as well. Now this run of the GFS does show warmer weather over most of the extended period. This is NOT what we’ve been seeing over the last several days on the extended period. If this run would verify, we would see moderating temperatures and seasonal or above seasonal readings for the last few days of January with a slight cool off as we headed into February. A system on the 30th and 31st would bring us some sort of wintry mix if this was to be correct. We’re not ready to take the train on this just yet. We’ll continue to monitor for any changes in model runs as we continue through the month.