Iowa Weather Report January 2nd 2015: Winter Storm Impacting the Area this Weekend

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SATURDAY: A storm is still forecast to move into the state from the southwest on Saturday. There is still some uncertainty regarding the track of the low, however most models still have the low moving to the south and east of the state. This would put the state in the prime position for seeing the heaviest snow. Especially somewhere in the eastern two-thirds of the state. Our projection based off several runs from earlier on Thursday along with current runs indicate that the snow will be the heaviest from southern Iowa northeastward into the eastern and northeastern counties of the state. There is still some chance that far southeast Iowa could even see a wintry mix which may lessen the snowfall amounts in those areas. A band of four to six inches is generally expected along a line from Shenandoah to Prairie Du Chien, with two to four inches on the border of that. One to two inches can be expected in southeast Iowa and north central through west central Iowa. Those in northwest Iowa, for once, can expect less than an inch.

The main event will kick off by Saturday morning as the system approaches from the south and southwest. Precipitation is expected to start out as all snow but as mentioned earlier in the post, some wintry mix is possble in the southeastern counties of the state during the daylight hours. This will transition to all snow by the evening and overnight hours as the low pressure moves off to the northeast. The snow will end during the early morning hours on Sunday as the system moves away. Strong winds will also be coming with this storm and could bring some travel issues late Saturday night and especially on Sunday with blowing snow. Sustained winds Saturday night through Sunday are expected to reach the 20-30 MPH range with gusts to 45 MPH. This will easily create blowing and drifting snow across the area with blizzard-like conditions possible. Temperatures on Sunday will be dropping throughout the day and this will also bring wind chills to dangerous levels by late Sunday afternoon into Sunday night. A Wind Chill Advisory or Warning may be required for part of the state at that time.

Nonetheless, expect a winter storm to move through the area on Saturday night and into Sunday. The track and intensity of this system will continue to change as the system brings itself closer to the area. Stay tuned to the Iowa Weather Network for the latest updates throughout tomorrow and Saturday on this.

THEREAFTER: Another system will drop in from the northwest on Monday night into Tuesday that may bring even more snow to the state at that time. This would be followed by bitter cold that looks to last for most of next week. We’ll have a better handle on that once we get this first system out of the way. Looking even farther into the month, we see no real trends developing at this point although the GFS continues to show several shots of cold air recycling through the state.