A Warm Saturday Ahead – Iowa Weather Network Archives

FAIRLY QUIET: Rather tranquil weather around for the rest of the week and into Saturday. Nothing like the active weather over the Great Lakes, East Coast and down into the Gulf Coast. Skies today will be partly to mostly sunny with more clouds again over the eastern counties with the storm that missed us continuing to bring some cloudiness in those areas. Temperatures will be in the 30s to lower 40s. Slightly warmer weather comes in Friday as there’ll be a bit more sunshine as well. Readings from the upper 30s north and northeast to near 50 southwest. Then comes Saturday as winds turn more out of the west and southwest and temperatures look to take off. Highs well into the 50s and even some 60s will be possible on Saturday. A system will be coming in on Sunday but at this time the precipitation chances look to be scattered at this time. The type of precipitation also looks to be mainly in the form of rain with perhaps a bit of a wintry mix Sunday evening in the northeastern counties of the state. Highs on Sunday will be a bit cooler with lower 40s north to near 60 south.

THE ROAR OF A STORM: This model run is suggesting that leap day looks to be somewhat mild as colder air really doesn’t look to make inroads into the area. There will be some cloudiness mainly over the northeastern counties with a disturbance that will be missing the state to our northeast. Otherwise some partial sunshine is likely for the rest of the state with readings in the 40s to lower 50s. However as we head to Tuesday and the first day of not only March but also Meteorological Spring, the roar of our next storm system approaches from the west. This could bring some rain and snow to the area through Wednesday. There’s still a lot of unknowns regarding this storm, including the track, strength, air temperatures and precipitation type. We will need a few more model runs to get some clarity for the middle of next week.

OVER THE HORIZON: Looking at what this run of the GFS is showing during the extended period, it is showing a system coming down from the northwest around the 5th and 6th of the March with a chance of some precipitation. The model continues this active weather pattern through the end of the period with several systems moving through every other day with a chance of precipitation. It also shows the flow coming mainly out of the northwest which would tend to keep temperatures at or below seasonal levels. However there is too much fluidity with regards to the weather next week to consider anything past the next 7-10 days. We may have a better idea about this period once we get through the activity the middle of next week.