Iowa Weather Report January 6th 2015: Sub-Zero, The Bitter Pill to Swallow

BITTER COLD: A cold week ahead with only a slight warm up on Thursday being the only break in the cold spell. Highs today will be in the single digits and lower teens. The next several nights will feature low temperatures in the single digits and teens below zero. Highs on Wednesday will stay below zero for most of the state. The only exception may be the far southeastern counties of the state. There will be plenty of sunshine around for the next couple of days as well. It will be breezy as well and this will lead to dangerous wind chill levels through at least early on Thursday. This wind will also lead to some blowing snow, especially today across the state. The brief warm up on Thursday will boost readings into the teens and 20s, but another arctic front moves through late in the day that will knock temperatures back into the single teens to lower teens for highs and lows at or below zero once again as we head into the weekend.

EXTENDED PERIOD: As we look into the extended period, the pattern looks different with more of a west to east flow. This would bring readings back to near seasonal levels if this verifies. This would also bring more active weather back into the state after a week of dry and bitter cold weather. We’ll see if this pattern becomes more apparent or the bitter cold of this upcoming week looks to continue farther into the month.