Frigid temperatures and snow are in store for much of the state this weekend. Rod Donavon, meteorologist with the National Weather Service, says arctic air is blowing in – forcing a Wind Chill Advisory for much of northern and eastern Iowa.
Actual low temperatures tonight will range from 10-below-zero over northern Iowa to five-above in the south. Wind chill readings, however, could hit 20-to-30-below zero.
A number of schools in northern Iowa dismissed classes early today because of blowing snow. It will remain cloudy and bitterly cold through the weekend, with a chance of snow Saturday night into Sunday for central and southern Iowa.
"We could see a prolonged, light snow event which could pile up a few inches of snow across the area," Donavan said. "Right now, it looks like mainly along and south of Interstate 80 could see two to four inches and far southern Iowa could see up to five." A slight warm up is expected sometime next week.
Donavan says high temperatures will climb back into the upper 20s to mid 30s by Tuesday or Wednesday.