Iowa Weather Report February 4th 2014 – Iowa Weather Network Archives

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SNOW AND COLD: The next storm is upon us and will be bringing some snow to the state today through early on Wednesday. The heaviest snowfall will be in the southern counties of the state with 4-7” with some isolated heavier totals. Lighter snows will fall to the north with only an inch or less in the northern tier or two tiers of counties. The big story then will be the wind Wednesday afternoon and evening and the cold temperatures. Some blowing and drifting snow will be possible even after the snow stops falling Wednesday morning. This will lead to some travel issues across the area. The snow will be powdery so it will have the tendency to blow around quite easily even if the winds are 10-20mph. Highs in the teens and 20s will be replaced by Thursday morning with teens below zero almost statewide. The cold air will last through Friday with highs in the single digits and teens and lows below zero before it slowly warms to the 20s by the weekend. The next storm which yesterday was more vigorous and farther south has now returned to the area for Sunday but in a much weaker state. If this were to occur as it is stated in the model run, we would receive some light snow or flurries at most with perhaps some very light accumulations possible. Confidence with this system is not high at this time given the extreme run to run differences with the models.

NEXT WEEK AND BEYOND: A few snow chances are seen in the extended period but more uncertainty than anything with the flow possibly turning back out of the northwest again which would lead to the clipper parade beginning once again along with cold blasts from the north. Whereas we’d been seeing the persistent zonal flow continuing into the middle of the month, we are not seeing it here. So right now, outside of the active pattern continuing, there isn’t any other trend that we see at this time.