MORE WARM DAYS: Another day of plenty of sunshine and readings well up in the 40s and 50s across the state. Some parts of southwestern Iowa could see some 60s today. A cold front will move into the state on Saturday which will drop readings into the 30s in the northern counties while the south will still see some 40s and 50s with partly to mostly sunny skies around. The northern counties may see mostly cloudy skies through most of the day. By the evening hours on Saturday, some light snow or a rain snow mix will move into the state with the next storm that will move south of the area. This could bring some accumulating snows to the state, but as of right now, amounts look to be an inch or two or less at this point. Some models have indicated higher and others lower, but we’ll go with something in the middle as of right now. The precipitation is expected to last through most of the day on Sunday as it shifts farther to the south. We could see some slow clearing late in the day but readings are likely to remain in the 30s across a good portion of the state throughout the day.

INTO NEXT WEEK: St. Patrick’s Day on Monday will be cooler than seasonal levels with some sunshine and some clouds around. The GFS is hinting at some precipitation possible by late in the day in the northern counties but that looks to hold off until at least sunset and after at this point. Readings during the day will be in the 30s north to lower and middle 40s south. The next system moves in Tuesday into Wednesday. This looks to bring perhaps some rain snow mix changing over to all snow on Wednesday as the cold air moves back in. It’s a bit early to determine amounts with this system so we’ll leave that for another time in a couple of days or so. The sun looks to return on Thursday but depending on whether we have any possible snow from the departing system on the ground remains to be seen. Current thinking is that readings will be in the 30s and 40s across the state. Any possible snow cover could lower those readings.

EXTENDED PERIOD: The GFS is showing a storm around the 23rd into the early morning of the 24th that could bring some precipitation to the state either in the form of rain, snow or a mix of the two. We’ll keep tabs on it in the coming days. Another storm around the 26th and again the 28th could bring more precipitation to the state at that time, but one thing is for certain, that the temperatures look to remain below seasonal levels at least through the end of March.

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