Iowa Weather Report December 6th 2014: A little System Sunday

THE WEEKEND: It will be a split weekend across the state with partly to mostly sunny skies today with readings in the 30s and 40s. Sunday will feature a different weather picture, with a lot of clouds and the potential of some rain, sleet, freezing rain and some snow possible. The type of precipitation and where is still up in the air, but it should be all rain during the daytime hours on Sunday when the bulk of the precipitation will be across the western half of the state. As we head into the evening and overnight hours, the precipitation may changeover to some sleet, freezing rain or some snow as it moves to the east. Amounts look to remain light, but any icing on the roads may cause some travel issues Sunday night into Monday morning. Be careful of the typical icy spots such as bridges and overpasses. The precipitation may last into the morning hours on Monday before moving away and skies will begin to clear from the west.

LOOKING INTO NEXT WEEK: The big story next week will be the gradual warm up in temperatures across the state. We should see readings climb well into the 40s and perhaps even a few 50s by the end of next week. A weak disturbance Wednesday night into Thursday could bring some light precipitation to the state but this may just be in the form of more cloudiness than anything. We’ll watch in the coming days for any changes upcoming. The next system will be approaching from the west as we near next weekend and this could bring some isolated showers by Friday into Friday night, but we have plenty of time to watch this as well.

FARTHER ALONG: The system next weekend may linger for a day or two, but the main activity with the system looks to remain to the south, however precipitation is still possible here but it would remain light if this model run were to verify. This run also shows cooler air will return a little past the middle of the month as readings look to return to seasonal levels after being above them for some time. This is a big shift in what we’ve been looking at over the last few days. This is in response to a system over the Bering Strait that will pump warmer air into Alaska and thus dumping the cold air in the Yukon and Northwest Territories in Canada southward into the US. We’ll have to see if this trend continues or it reverts back to the above average temperatures continuing for several more days.