A Speck of Snow But Mainly Quiet Week Ahead – Iowa Weather Network Archives

A SKIRTING STORM: Another storm system will be moving into the state today into Wednesday bringing a chance of some rain across most of the state, however the northern and northwestern counties will see wintry precipitation in the form of a rain snow mix changing to all snow. Accumulations will be minor with only an inch or two possible mainly in the northwestern counties. The heavier totals will be to the north and northwest of the state. Rainfall amounts will be light as well and some areas my get little more than a trace. Highs today will be much cooler. Gone are the 50s and 60s of the weekend and replacing them are 30s and 40s which is still above the seasonal normal for the middle of December. We will dry out as we head through the rest of the week and this big bright thing will be in the sky. I think it’s called the sun and we’ll be seeing some of that this week as temperatures settle back to the upper 20s through the middle and upper 30s for highs through the end of the week. Lows will be in the teens and 20s. The main story however will be the flooding of area rivers and streams which will remain in flood through the rest of the week in many places. Take any precautions if you are in an area under a flood warning.

WEEKEND WARM UP: As we head into the weekend, the wind turns back out of the southwest once again and this will help boost readings back into the 40s for most of us. Sunshine will be in full force on Saturday with a few more clouds around on Sunday with a weak system moving through the could bring a few rain and or snow showers to the state Sunday afternoon into Sunday night. It doesn’t look to be a big issue at this time but if there any changes we’ll let you know.

CHRISTMAS TIME: As we head into next week which ends with Christmas Day (Next Friday), another storm system is seen on the GFS Tuesday into Wednesday of next week which looks fairly similar to this last one that dumped a month plus worth of rain over some parts of the state. The precipitation looks to be mainly in the form of rain for the most part with some snow on the tail end. We should get a better grasp on this later in the week but it’s something to watch out for. We do NOT need any more rain and certainly don’t need a “lot” of snow. This system is shown to move out on Wednesday with some flurries possible on Christmas Eve (Next Thursday) that doesn’t look to amount to much and another system Christmas Day that may bring rain and or snow depending on temperatures. Temperatures look to drop back to seasonal levels with some variable readings Christmas Day due to a possible system tracking through.

FURTHER ALONG: Looking through toward the end of the year, the weather pattern looks very active with several systems moving close or over the state with chances of precipitation. It’s too early to determine the type of precipitation or how much we could get. Readings look to be fairly tepid as we don’t see any arctic surges that we saw on the models last week but those could return at any time.