Iowa Weather Report December 29th 2014: Heading for the Freezer

CHILL OUT: An arctic front will move through the state today. It may bring some light snow or flurries to mainly the western half of the state. Any accumulations will be light, mainly under an inch. Skies will be mostly cloudy for most of the state with some clearing possible late in the northern counties of the state. Highs today will vary across the state from the lower teens in the northwestern counties to the lower and middle 30s in the eastern counties where the front will not move through until late in the day. The front will sweep across the state tonight and drop readings well below zero in the northwestern half of the state where snow still remains on the ground. The rest of the state will see readings drop into the single digits to around 10. Wind chills will be down below zero for the entire state tonight. Tuesday will not be a good day to be outside. Highs will struggle through the single digits in the northwestern half of the state while the rest of the state will see readings in the teens. Another night of subzero readings is possible Tuesday night into Wednesday morning for most of the state except the southeastern third before readings look to moderate slowly as we head to the end of the week. We should see readings return into the teens and 20s for highs by Thursday and 20s for most of the state on Friday with partly to mostly sunny skies seen for the entire work week except for a slight snow or flurry chance Thursday in the far northeastern counties. This doesn’t look to be a major issue at this time.

WEEKEND STORM: The next system will approach the state on Saturday and move through Saturday night into Sunday. Ahead of this system, temperatures will warm to near seasonal levels if not warmer than that. However as the precipitation looks to begin late Saturday night, we could see a wintry mix especially in our southeastern counties before it changes over to all snow Sunday morning. At this point, the heaviest precipitation looks to be over the southern and eastern counties of the state, but it’s too early to determine whether this will be all snow or some may fall as a mix. We will have to wait a few more days to get a better handle on this. Following the system, the winds will switch around to the north and northwest and any snow that does fall will blow around which could create white out conditions. Temperatures also look to dump once more as Arctic air returns after a few day break late this coming week.

EXTENDED PERIOD: As we look toward the middle of January, the weather pattern shows below average temperatures for the most part. It also shows that the weather pattern could get more active as well with several systems quickly moving through the area that could bring some snows to the state. Toward the end of the period, a significant system looks to move in that could bring some interesting weather to the state around the 12th and 13th of January. We’ll watch for any trends on this system as we move forward, but confidence is rather low this far out.