Short Term Forecast-The arrival of an arctic airmass is causing significant travel delays in parts of Iowa this morning and causing travel to be completely halted in others because of the very high winds associated with it. First north Iowa-Some light snows fell overnight generally amounts were light between 1-2″ however this new fluffy snow fell on top of a snowcover that has ice on top, so there is nothing to keep it held down. Winds are gusting from 45MPH to over 50MPH which is causing blizzard conditions especially outside the protective treecover of any cities and towns. Spencer reported 51MPH, Mason City 39MPH, Sioux City 44MPH and Ames 44MPH. Across central Iowa-We have bands of light snow and high winds gusting 35-43MPH effecting central and south Iowa anywhere from Webster City to Ames through the Des Moines metropolitan area, West to Atlantic east to Oskaloosa. Here in the Des Moines metro at Cumming where I live we only got maybe an inch of snow but even here these strong winds are blowing the snow around and I am seeing lots of blowing and swirling snow. So even outside of advisory and warning areas be on the lookout for icy patches!

 

Travel conditions are very treacherous all across north and central Iowa. State officials are recommending NO travel where you see red or yellow on the map. This includes much of Highway 18 corridor west of Mason City and I-35 from Story City to the north state line. There are a few total road closures as since the last update and they are: East/West road Iowa 174 at Ellsworth, East/West Iowa 3 at Latimer, Hampton west to Humboldt. Highway 169 North/South in the Boxholm area. We have an accidents in the Moorland/Fort Dodge general area. East/West roads are the worst for travel this morning as the wind directions is north to northwest blowing snow across these roads. Please reconsider any travel issues if you are anywhere near red on the map or where closures are taking place. Farther south: Metropolitan areas of Omaha/Council Bluffs, Des Moines, Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and surrounding areas. Travel here is a bit tricky but doable if you take it SLOW and be cautious of any snow blowing across the road. I-80 does have reported icy patches in country areas from Iowa City west to Nebraska state line. If you are in south Iowa along highway 2, you probably don’t have much blowing snow as there was no snow on the ground here before until this morning.