[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40bQX9tXUwI?hl=en&fs=1&w=425&h=349]

AHEAD TO FRIDAY: A significant snow storm is forecast to breeze through the state on Friday with several inches of snow. The NAM and GFS are both showing snowfall amounts of at least 4-6″+ across the northern counties, with little if anything over the far south. This will be a quick mover, coming in Thursday night into Friday morning from west to east and departing late Friday afternoon and evening. A Winter Weather Advisory has already been issued for this storm across far northwestern Iowa for Friday morning through Friday afternoon with expected 3-5″ snow totals out of the storm in that area. Other Advisories or Watches are likely to be issued this morning or later this afternoon.

NEXT WEEK: Another system may bring some light precip (rain and or snow mix) Wednesday. It’s a little early to determine amounts as most of the heaviest precipitation will remain along the Gulf Coast.

END OF JAN SNOW?: The model run continues to show a very significant snow, even more than the one moving through this Friday by the 30th. This will be coming from the southwest with the Gulf of Mexico wide open. If this pans out, we could see a wide swath of moderate to heavy snow from southwest to northeast across the state, again this is more than 10 days away and could change on the next run. Following that snow, the bitter cold looks to make another appearance with a 1052mb High over the Yukon dive-bombing across Canada into the US. It’s looking more and more like February will start off bitterly cold across the area.