Iowa Weather Report December 22nd 2014: Have Yourself a Monday Little System

THROUGH TO CHRISTMAS: Precipitation will be the main story today across the state with most areas seeing some light rain today. Some of this may start out at some sleet, freezing rain or snow in the far northern or northeastern counties of the state before switching over to all rain. Any travel issues should be confined to the morning hours and over those areas. Highs today will be in the upper 30s north to the lower and middle 40s south. The precipitation will continue into tonight and Tuesday and changeover to some snow at that time. The best chance of seeing any accumulating snow still looks to be over the far northern and northwestern counties of the state where an inch or two is possible there. Readings on Tuesday will be in the 30s to lower 40s across the state. Another system will be moving north-northeastward across the Ohio and Tennessee River Valleys on Christmas Eve (Wednesday). This may just scrape the far eastern counties with some flurry activity but it looks like the accumulating snows will be to our east. We’ll watch for any slight deviations in this track as it may move farther west which could put more of the state into some snow chances as we head into Wednesday. Looking at Christmas Day, the skies look to be partly to mostly sunny with winds coming around out of the south and temperatures likely making it into the 30s and perhaps a few 40s around. However any changes in previous systems could undoubtedly change this as well so stay tuned.

MOVING TOWARD NEXT WEEKEND: Looking toward the weekend, a weak system looks to move through the area on Friday into Friday night. This looks to bring a chance of some light snow or flurries to the state. Any accumulation is expected to be light as the GFS is showing very little moisture with this system at this time. What it will do is bring the temperatures back down to seasonal if not below seasonal levels by the time we get into the weekend. Another weak system will approach late on Sunday and linger into Monday but like the previous system, it lacks moisture so it doesn’t look to bring a whole lot at this time, but we’ll watch it.

BRINGING IN THE NEW YEAR: As we look into the New Year, the weather pattern looks a bit active but a lot of the activity looks to bypass the state either to our north or south. Readings look to be below seasonal levels to start out before moderating to and perhaps even above seasonal levels at the end of the period as the main jet stream moves well to the north. Confidence in this is rather low as this looks rather atypical for early January to see the jet stream near the US Canadian border, but we’ll watch for any trends that keep this going in the coming days.