Iowa Weather Report December 19th 2014: Away From The Sunshine, More Clouds in the Sky

QUIET AND SEASONAL: It will be relatively quiet through the weekend although the next storm system will be encroaching the state late Sunday into Sunday night. In the meantime skies will be partly to mostly cloudy for today through the weekend. We can’t rule out some sunshine but there will be more clouds than sun for most of the next three days. Highs will generally be in the lower to middle 30s across the state which is close to seasonal levels if not a degree or two above them.

THROUGH CHRISTMAS: The next system as mentioned will move in late Sunday into Sunday night and looks to last through at least the first half of Tuesday with a chance of some light snow across the state. It’s still too early to determine any snowfall amounts at this time, but some accumulations look to be possible. This would give us a White Christmas for the entire state. This system moves away but right on its heels is the next system which looks to move in Christmas night into next Friday with some snow. Temperatures look to warm ahead of the system Christmas eve, possibly above freezing in the southern half of the state and just a bit cooler in the northern half. This second system will bring snow by late Christmas night or early Friday morning in the western part of the state before moving through the rest of the state during the day. Temperatures look to fall next Friday during the day as colder air moves in from the northwest.

LOOKING INTO 2015: The GFS is showing much cooler conditions as we end the year and begin the new one. One system may skirt the state with some snow around New Year’s Eve but it’s too early to time this out at this point. Outside of that, it does look somewhat quiet but this could undoubtedly change in the next couple of runs.