Iowa Weather Report February 18th 2015: Cold, Snow for Weekend??

IT’S STILL COLD: Cold air is still around and looks to be around for at least a week or more across the state. Skies will be partly to mostly sunny today with readings only in the single digits for most with some lower to middle teens in the western counties of the state. Tonight, skies will be clear and lows will plummet into the teens below zero for the northern and northeastern counties of the state with single digits below zero elsewhere except the far west which may just stay above zero. Thursday will be no better with readings in the single digits and teens in the east and lower 20s out west with skies becoming mostly cloudy as the next disturbance moves in late Thursday night into Friday with some light snow. Wind Chills during this period will be between -15 and -25 for most of the state. This disturbance on Friday will bring some accumulating snow to the state but most places will see at least a half inch or less with some areas possibly getting up to an inch.

WEEKEND FUN: A system may skirt the state this weekend with more accumulating snow and the trends over the last 24 hours has been moving farther to the north. At this point the best chance for seeing any accumulating snow will be along and south of Interstate 80 with heavier amounts closer to the Iowa Missouri border. It’s too early to determine amounts as this is still a fluid situation at this point. We should be able to get a better handle on this possible storm in the next 24-48 hours. Readings will still be below average with teens and 20s around.

MORE COLD FUN: After this system moves off late on Sunday, another dump of cold air moves back into the state and we could see readings back below zero once again with highs struggling to reach the single digits and teens. Another clipper system on Tuesday may bring some light snow or flurries but it will bring more cold air behind it as well which looks to last through the middle of next week.

FARTHER INTO MARCH: As we look into the extended period, the GFS is still consistently showing the cold weather pattern breaking around the 1st of March. The pattern continues to look somewhat active as well with several systems moving through the area with some precipitation however confidence in this period outside of the possible breakdown of the cold weather pattern is low.