The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch which will go into effect Friday afternoon and be in effect until Saturday morning (in NC Iowa) and Saturday afternoon (in NE and EC Iowa) for the following counties, Black Hawk, Bremer, Butler, Hancock, Kossuth, Cerro Gordo, Franklin, Winnebago, Worth, Howard, Mitchell, Winneshiek, Allamakee, Floyd, Chickasaw, Fayette, Clayton, Buchanan, Delaware, Dubuque, Linn, Jones, Jackson and Clinton. This includes the cities of Mason City, Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque and Clinton. A swath of moderate to heavy snow accumulations are possible beginning Friday afternoon across the northern sections of the state sweeping ESEward across into NE and EC Iowa. There will be a large cut-off to the snow, with some locales receiving a half foot of snow while 20-30 miles to the SW may see only a few flurries. The heaviest snow looks at this point to be setting up across the NE sections where as much as 5-9 inches of snow will be possible with 2-4 inches across the EC sections. The southwestern half of the state are likely not to see any accumulating snow (if they see any at all). This may change, and advisories and warnings may be issued later today or early tomorrow morning as the weather warrants.