Cold Today, Warmer This Weekend – Iowa Weather Network Archives

CHANGE IN THE AIR: It will continue to feel like it should today with partly to mostly sunny skies around the state. The northern counties will see a few more clouds than the southern counties with a disturbance moving just north of the area. It may spit out a few snow flurries or snow showers but it should not amount to much at this time. Highs today will be in the 20s and 30s across the state. As we head into the weekend, temperatures will bump back into the 30s and 40s once again as winds turn out of the south and southwest. This will be ahead of another system that could bring some rain and or snow showers late Sunday into Monday morning. Again this system looks to be moisture starved and may only bring about a tenth of an inch of liquid equivalent mainly over the eastern counties of the state.

O CHRISTMAS TREE: As we look at next week, colder air will filter in Monday dropping readings back to the upper 20s through the middle 30s across the state with partly to mostly sunny skies by the afternoon. Winds turn back out of the south once again on Tuesday ahead of the next system that looks to come in at mid-week. Highs in the 30s look to be commonplace at that time. This system looks moisture starved as well (at least for Iowa) as most of the precipitation looks to fall east of the Mississippi River. We could see a few rain or snow showers late Tuesday into Wednesday but it looks a whole lot better than what we’d been seeing the last couple of days. A weak disturbance follows in the wake of this system Christmas Eve into Christmas Eve night that could bring some light snow activity, but it’s too early to determine whether it would be enough to dust the ground at this time. Keep watching.

ENDING THE YEAR: Looking into the extended period, the GFS has another storm on the 26th and 27th that could bring some rain or snow to the state. Most of the moisture with this system is shown to stay south of the state which could keep our amounts fairly light. That storm then moves north back into the state on the 29th and 30th which could bring even more precipitation to the state, both in the form of rain and snow once again. This will also bring colder air to end the year and begin the new one, a change from what was seen yesterday (not a surprise with models this far out)