Iowa Weather Discussion February 20th 2014 – Iowa Weather Network Archives

NO VIDEO DUE TO APPROACHING STORM

THE STORM: We’ve been talking about this storm today for many days and now it’s upon us. It will bring some snow during the morning into the afternoon hours in our western and central counties of the state while some rain will change over to some snow in the eastern counties. Some of the snow will be heavy as discussed in the post last evening. Rain across the southeastern counties of the state could be heavy enough to bring some isolated flooding to local creeks and streams and perhaps even city streets that may have drains clogged by snow. The big deal with this system will be the strong winds as the low will continue to deepen as it moves to the northeast. Winds will be anywhere between 25-40mph gusting at times over 50. This will create blowing and drifting snow and blizzard conditions especially in open areas. Thus a blizzard warning is in effect in the central into the northern and northeastern counties of the state. Snow will being to taper off to flurries during the night with most of the precipitation out of the state by sunrise on Friday morning. Temperatures today will vary from the 40s in the eastern and southeastern counties of the state to the 30s most elsewhere.

THROUGH THE WEEKEND INTO NEXT WEEK: The weekend will get colder with the freshly fallen snow and the flow coming out of the northwest. This will drop readings into the 20s and 30s on Friday and the teens and 20s for high Saturday through most of next week. Lows could get back down below zero next week on some mornings where the winds are light or become calm. Any chances of seeing some snow will be very spotty and light at best with chances coming Sunday morning and again on Tuesday mainly over the southern counties of the state. Currently it looks as if this would bring no more than a dusting or half inch at best at this time.

FARTHER OUT: The cold air looks to stay entrenched for the rest of February into the first few days of March. The GFS model is showing a pretty potent storm system around the 1st and 2nd of March (which is right before the Iowa Girls State Basketball Tournament which begins on the 3rd). There has been in the past a big weather event taking place around the Girls Basketball Tournament in Des Moines, not every year, but some years in the past. We’ll just have to see if this may be another one or if it will disappear on the next couple runs and become a distant memory. The Model is showing the possible end to the colder than average weather perhaps around the 5th of March, but at this point, we’ll just have to monitor the situation and go day by day with this and give you a better idea as to when the cold weather will finally move out and then we can get some actual “long term” spring weather around here.