The Bitter Blast – Iowa Weather Network Archives

DOWN DOWN DOWN: That’s what the temperatures will be doing today and into this weekend as bitter Arctic air returns to the state after a brief spell of warmer weather. Some precipitation is possible just east of the state but we should stay mainly dry and mostly cloudy today. Highs will be occurring early on as temperatures begin their tumble. Tonight skies will remain mostly cloudy with lows mainly in the single digits in teens. Some areas in northern Iowa could fall below zero by a few degrees. Heading into the weekend it will be downright miserable with regards to the readings. Highs on Saturday will struggle to reach the double digits in our northern counties while the rest of the state will see some teens. If you think that’s great, you haven’t seen what the temperatures will be by Sunday morning. Low temperatures across the state are likely to be below zero statewide (with areas along and north of US 20 seeing -10s) with only the far southern or southeastern managing to stay at or just above zero. What’s even more crazy is a disturbance will be moving through the state Saturday night into Sunday with a chance of light snow. This will be a very fluffy snow with the cold temperatures around and may blow around with even the slightest breeze. Monday morning could see a repeat of Sunday morning with regards to temperatures with High pressure moving directly overhead. Temperatures will easily get into the -10s in our northern counties and -0s most everywhere else.

NEXT WEEK: Temperatures look to stay below average as we head into next week. Another system comes in from the west Tuesday into Wednesday with another chance of some light snow at that time. Highs in the upper single digits through the lower 20s will be commonplace Tuesday into Wednesday. A brief warm up looks to occur as we head toward the end of the week but another system is seen moving in that will drop the temperatures back down but at this time not to the bitter cold levels we’ll see this weekend and early next week.

TO THE END: As we look at the model data through the end of January, the GFS has another spell of warmer weather next weekend (23rd and 24th). A cold front drops in from the northwest on the 25th and brings with it more of that cold air we’ve been just dying for all year (NOT!). Some snow is shown moving through with this system. This cold snap is shown to not last too long before much warmer air moves back in to finish the month out. Of course as mentioned, this is model data and this can and will likely change over the next several days so we’re not too concerned at this time this far out.