Iowa Weather Report January 4th 2015: The Polar Air Express

THE NEXT SYSTEM: One system will depart the state today and the next system will be on the way into the state Monday into the first part of Tuesday. Today, snow will linger in the eastern counties of the state through the morning hours before moving out. Skies will be slow to clear from west to east. Highs today will be set early on in the eastern counties with teens to near 20 before falling throughout the day into the single digits. The rest of the state will see those single digits for highs. Wind chills will be below zero for the entire day. As we head into Monday, the next system will move in from the northwest. Clouds will be on the increase during the day with a chance of snow moving into the western counties of the state by the midday hours and the rest of the state by late afternoon into the evening. At this time, the heaviest snow looks to be centered over the northern half of the state (although this may change). We will have a handle on the amounts later on today or tonight. Readings on Monday will be in the single digits and lower teens across the state.

HERE COMES THE BITTER COLD: As we look toward the rest of the upcoming week, the main word as we mentioned yesterday will be cold. Highs will be struggling to reach zero in some of our northern counties with single digits above zero elsewhere Tuesday and Wednesday. Lows will be well below zero both nights for most of the state. Thursday we should see a brief warm up that may bring readings back into the teens and 20s but it will be short lived as another arctic front moves through late Thursday and will bring readings back down into the single digits for highs and lows back below zero.

EXTENDED PERIOD: Looking at the extended period, nothing much really pops out at this point. Temperatures look to be near seasonal levels except for the 16th through the 18th where the GFS has warmer temperatures moving in. The GFS is also showing no significant systems impacting the state during the period, but that doesn’t mean that any could pop up on later runs. Confidence this far out is rather low.