Iowa Weather Report November 20th 2014: It Keeps On Coming

ANOTHER DOSE OF COLD: Two more days of bitter cold air will be in the forecast, before readings moderate to near seasonal levels for the weekend. Highs will be in the upper teens through the 20s today and a few degrees warmer on Friday with 20s to lower 30s across the state at that time. Skies will be partly to mostly sunny across the state both days.

WEEKEND STORM: The next system will move into the state for the weekend and into the first part of the new work week. The first part of the system looks to move in late Friday night into Saturday with some wintry precipitation possible mainly over the southeastern half of the state. Some of this could be in the form of freezing drizzle, sleet or snow transitioning to all rain over the far southeastern counties while remaining a wintry mix elsewhere through the morning hours on Saturday. At that time, readings will warm sufficiently to get readings above freezing so that all the precipitation should fall in the form of rain. Amounts are expected to be light on Saturday, but as we head into Sunday, a system will begin deepening as it moves toward the eastern counties of the state from the south-southwest. This may bring heavier precipitation (in the form of rain) over the eastern counties of the state with lighter amounts to the west. As the system moves off to the northeast Sunday night into Monday, the precipitation will switch over to some light snow showers with minor accumulations possible in our northern counties. Highs this weekend should reach the upper 30s through the 40s for most of the state, falling back into the 20s and lower to middle 30s on Monday as the cold air moves in from the northwest.

HEADING TOWARD THANKSGIVING: A few flurries of light snow showers look to continue into Tuesday but should not amount to much. The temperatures will be back into the 20s for highs with lows into the teens through Wednesday. On Wednesday, a system will approach from the west and northwest riding over the top of the ridge over the western part of the country. This will likely bring a chance of some light snow by Wednesday afternoon over the western counties and Wednesday evening over the eastern counties. This will last into Thanksgiving but as of this moment, it’s too early to determine any possible snow amounts at this time. We’ll watch and fine tune the forecast as we draw closer. This also looks to bring another chunk of bitter cold that looks to last into the first part of next weekend.

LOOKING INTO DECEMBER: The GFS is showing seasonal to above seasonal readings for the first few days of December with some precipitation around the 3rd and 4th. This will be followed by another push of cold air from Canada on the 5th that could lower readings back into the 20s across the state. We still have plenty of time and several storms to get through before we get to this, however the pattern does look somewhat active for the next few weeks across the area.