A Wet Travel Day – Iowa Weather Network Archives

A VERY WET TURKEY: The next storm system will be moving into the state today bringing with it a chance of some rain across the state. There will be some fog that will be hanging around due to the melting snow across the state. This along with some drizzle will precede the rain that will move in later in the afternoon into the evening hours. As we head into Thanksgiving, the rain could become heavy in the southeastern half of the state where an inch or more is possible. As colder air moves in from the northwest, we should see the precipitation change over to some freezing rain, sleet and snow in our western counties during the afternoon and into the evening and overnight. The best chances of seeing any possible snowfall will be along and west of a Shenandoah to Ames to Decorah line. To the east, most of the precipitation should be in the form of rain and changeover to a wintry mix before ending early Friday morning. The far southeastern counties are likely to stay as all rain before it ends Friday morning. This may cause some travel issues for those that will be heading out shopping late Thanksgiving into early on Black Friday. Highs today will be in the 40s to middle 50s across the state. Thanksgiving will see readings in the lower to middle 30s in the northwestern counties, 40s in the central counties and 50s to near 60 in the eastern and southeastern counties of the state.

WEEKEND: As we head into the weekend, Friday will see some partial clearing in our northern and northwestern counties while the rest of the state should see some clearing by the afternoon hours. The southeastern counties could be socked in with clouds all day with some precipitation (mainly rain) lasting through the mid-morning hours before moving into Illinois. Highs on Friday will be in the 30s to lower 40s across the state. Saturday will be much drier and sunnier as well with only some residual cloudiness possible in the southern counties of the state with a new system south of the state. This could move back into the state late Saturday night into Sunday with a chance of some light snow or flurries but at this time it doesn’t look to amount to a whole lot. If things change we’ll let you know. It will be a cool weekend but not overly brutal with 30s for highs and lows in the teens to middle 20s.

NEXT WEEK: The GFS shows a weak disturbance Monday into Tuesday with a chance of some flurries, however we could just see some increased cloudiness and not much of any activity at this time. It will remain in the 30s for highs both Monday and Tuesday. Looking into the extended period through the end of next week, another system is shown moving just south of the state next Wednesday into Thursday that could bring a slight chance of some precipitation in our far southern counties, however the best chances look to be further south across the Middle and Lower Mississippi River Valley.

FURTHER AHEAD: The GFS has a system around the 7th and 8th of December that could bring us a little precipitation at that time, otherwise it looks dry through the end of the period. Temperatures are shown to be close to seasonal levels with a bit of warmer weather toward the middle of December, however confidence is low at this time.