Iowa Weather Report February 10th 2015: Cold Blast Arriving

COLD BLAST ON THE WAY: Another warm day in store for most of the state today. There will be an increase in cloudiness ahead of the next system which will be dropping into the state later today into tonight and Wednesday morning. This will bring a chance of some freezing rain, sleet and snow to the area. The best chances of seeing any precipitation will be across the northern and northeastern counties of the state. Highs today will be in the 30s north to the lower and middle 40s across the southwestern counties of the state where they should see the most sunshine today before the clouds begin to fill in. The cold front will move through the state Wednesday morning and the highs are likely to be set during the morning hours before beginning to fall in the afternoon. The wind will be quite blustery out of the north which will lead to wind chills falling well below zero in some areas. Readings by Thursday morning are expected to be in the single digits above and below zero. Highs on Thursday will only rebound into the teens to lower 20s across the state.

ANOTHER COLD BLAST TO FOLLOW: The next cold blast from the north and northwest will move in late Friday afternoon into Friday evening. Any precipitation looks to stay across Wisconsin but we can’t rule out a slight chance of a flurry or two around. The weekend will be quite cold with highs in the single digits and teens and lows in the single digits above and below zero. Some areas in northeast Iowa could see readings fall into the -10s especially in valleys. A disturbance on Sunday could bring some light snow to the area at that time but indications are that it would be more of a nuisance than anything. As we look into early next week, a storm which the GFS had near us yesterday, is now developing more toward the south so we may miss out on any significant activity early next week, but another high pressure is poised to drop in from the northwest continuing the streak of below average temperatures for a few more days.

EXTENDED PERIOD: As we look into the extended period, the colder than average temperatures look to continue for a few more days into the period before some moderation takes place around the 19th and 20th. The GFS is also showing that the pattern may start to get active again as we get toward the end of the period, but we have plenty of time to watch that in the coming days.