Iowa Weather Report March 5th 2014 – Iowa Weather Network Archives

CLOSING IN ON AVERAGE: Temperatures will continue their climb toward the seasonal averages over the next couple of days. Highs today will mainly be in the 20s to around 30 with readings on Thursday in the upper 20s to near 40 across the state. We may see some lingering snow showers in our southern counties through the morning into the early afternoon hours. Any accumulation should be light at this time as the heaviest snow will have fallen last night. Skies will remain mainly cloudy today and into tonight which will help readings remain in the single digits and teens. Thursday, we will see partial sunshine return as the temperatures warm. Clouds move back in late Thursday into Friday with a cold front that will move through on Friday bringing with it some rain and or snow to the state. Readings will be close to Thursday’s levels.

SPLIT WEEKEND: The coming weekend will feature one cold day and one day that will be much warmer. Saturday is expected to be chilly with readings in the 20s and lower 30s across the state with partly to mostly sunny skies. However as we move into Sunday, the winds turn to the southwest and readings will be boosted into the 30s and even 40s across the state. We are likely to melt some snow which may lead to some refreezing over nights and perhaps some light fog. We may also start seeing the river ice begin to break up on area rivers. This may lead to possible ice jams that could cause flooding. We’ll may on the watch for that in the coming days and weeks.

INTO NEXT WEEK: Monday is likely to be the warmest day upcoming with readings well into the 40s and perhaps even a few lower 50s in areas that have little or no snow on the ground. This will be short lived as colder air will come back in on Tuesday with a weak disturbance that may spark a rain and or snow shower. Readings will drop back into the 30s to lower 40s for highs with partly to mostly cloudy skies.

EXTENDED PERIOD: The colder weather looks to last through the end of next week with readings likely staying in the 20s and 30s through at least Friday of next week before readings moderate back to near seasonal levels for the following weekend. Thereafter the GFS is showing some brief cold spells followed by moderating temperatures back to near seasonal levels. One storm does look interesting around the 19th and 20th that could bring rain, perhaps thunderstorms followed by snow on the back side. This is the first time we’ve seen this system on the model so we’re going to have to keep watching to see if this system continues on future runs before really going full bore with it.