Iowa Weather Report November 21st 2014: Some Rain Possible

WEEKEND STORM: The next storm is going to move into the state for the weekend and could dump quite a bit of rainfall across our far eastern counties, while the western counties may only get a few hundredths. In the meantime, the weather today will be a bit warmer than it was on Thursday. Readings will be in the 20s and 30s across the state with partly to mostly sunny skies. Clouds will be on the increase by the afternoon hours as the system approaches. The first wave of precipitation will move in later tonight into Saturday morning. This is expected to be light but may also start out as some freezing drizzle or freezing rain. This will switch to all rain Saturday but even then amounts are still expected to be light. Some slick spots could be seen on roads Saturday morning for anyone that might be heading to any of the College Football games on Saturday. Be aware of that as you head out. As we head into Sunday, a low pressure center will be coming from the south-southwest and move just to the east of the state. This would tend to take the heaviest precipitation to the east of the area, however there is still a chance to see about an inch of rain southeast of a Bellevue to Washington to Bloomfield line with lighter amounts off to the west. Readings on Saturday and Sunday will be much warmer with 40s and even a few 50s in the southeastern counties on Saturday. Sunday will see a cold front swing in from the west that will begin to drop readings back down as we head into the new work week. It may also switch any leftover precipitation over to some light snow before ending Sunday night into Monday morning. Any accumulations are expected to be light if not more than a dusting in some areas.

TURKEY TIME: As we head into Thanksgiving week, the cold air will be back across the state with readings mainly in the 20s to lower 30s for highs with lows in the teens. Tuesday will be the driest day with partly to mostly sunny skies, however the clouds will be on the increase again as another storm approaches from the west with some light snow chances as we head into Wednesday. At this time this system doesn’t look to be that big of a deal, but we’ll watch for any changes as we get closer to that time period. A bit of light snow is possible in the southern counties on Thanksgiving Day itself, but again this looks light as well. This will ahead of another push of cold air coming in for Black Friday and into the following weekend. This could drop readings back into the 20s for highs if not colder depending on several factors including any snow pack remaining etc.

INTO DECEMBER: The GFS continues to show another push of arctic air around the 30th of November with some light snow showers possible at that time. This looks to last until around the 3rd when the winds swing around to the southwest. The GFS also shows another push of cold air toward the end of the period as well with some precipitation possible as well. Not seeing anything significant during this period but there’s plenty of time for that to change.