Iowa Weather Report March 6th 2014 – Iowa Weather Network Archives

LIKE A HEAT WAVE: Anytime you get close to seasonal levels for this time of the year after a winter we’ve had, you’d think any temperature above freezing would feel like a heat wave. Today and tomorrow could be such a case. Partly to mostly sunny skies will be found across the state today with readings from near 30 in the far north where the heavy snow fell yesterday morning to the lower 40s in the southwestern counties of the state. Friday a frontal system will move into the state from the northwest. This will trigger some interesting weather which may contain some rain, sleet, freezing rain and some snow. The icy precipitation would likely be confined to the northern counties of the state for most of the day where readings will be in the 30s while the rest of the state will see temperatures rise in the 40s and perhaps even a few lower 50s in southeast Iowa where the sun will be out for most of the day before the clouds begin to increase. Friday night the precipitation will transition over to all snow before ending early Saturday morning. Any accumulations look to be minor at this time. Lows will fall back into the single digits northwest to the upper 20s southeast.

SPLIT PEA WEEKEND: The weekend continues to feature one cold day on Saturday followed by a much warmer day on Sunday and even into Monday as well. It will be partly to mostly sunny throughout the weekend with readings on Saturday in the 20s and 30s. Sunday and Monday however, will feature winds around to the southwest once more and readings climbing into the 40s and even 50s across the state (some heavier snow packed areas may only see upper 30s). This will lead to widespread melting of the snow and will likely begin to break up some of the ice on area rivers. This may lead to some possible ice jams that could lead to some localized flooding. We may also see some light fog depending on how light the winds are during the overnights and early morning hours as well.

REST OF THE WEEK: Another front comes through on Tuesday that may bring an isolated chance of some precipitation to the state. This will also bring an end to the warm weather as readings will slide back into the upper 20s through the 30s across the state. The colder weather looks to last through the rest of the week with some chance of some light snow possible Thursday into Friday. It is way too early to determine any sort of snow amounts from this system at this time.

FARTHER ALONG: The colder than average readings look to continue at least through St. Patrick’s Day before readings look to moderate once again to near seasonal levels. The GFS does show some very active weather around the 19th through the 21st that could bring some interesting weather to the state if it were to verify. We’ll continue to watch it in the coming days to see if any trends form.