Iowa Weather Report January 5th 2015: Snow and Sub-Zero

A COLD BITTER WEEK: A cold week will be in store across the state. It will start out with a clipper system that will bring a swath of moderate to heavy snow across the state. Snow accumulations of 5-9” will be possible from northwest through central into eastern Iowa. Winter Storm Warnings have been issued for those areas. Lighter amounts of snow will be possible further to the south and southwest. The snow will move into the state during the late morning hours over the western counties of the state and overspread the area through the rest of the afternoon and into the evening hours. Some snowfall rates of 1-2” per hour could be possible. This will be a light fluffy snow that will tend to blow around even in the lightest of winds. Highs today will be in the single digits and teens. Lows tonight will drop into the single digits above and below zero. As we look toward the rest of the week, temperatures will tumble into the sub-zero category for highs on Wednesday with lows below zero for most of the week. There is a warm up that may reach our southwestern counties on Thursday that could boost readings into the teens and 20s, but this will be short-lived as another batch of arctic air will move through late Thursday bringing readings back down into the deep freeze heading toward the weekend.

LOOKING FORWARD: No real trends taking shape looking at the extended period. The GFS is showing another cold snap around the middle of the month that looks to last about 2-3 days. This is then followed by a moderating trend that would boost readings above seasonal levels. However any snow cover will likely keep temperatures in check. Confidence this far out is still low at this point.