2010 will not be known for particularly stormy weather in Iowa.

State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says there were no major hail storms in Iowa this past year.”In the past few years we’ve had several hundred-million-dollar storms with hail, but not this year,” Hillaker says. “Whatever hail we had was fairly limited.”

There was a late start to the tornado season, too. ”The first tornado touch-down did not occur until June 1, which was the latest start to the season that we’ve seen sometime way back in the 1970s,” Hillaker says.

June wound up being an active month for tornadoes, with 27 twisters in that month alone. ”But not much happened after that and we had a total of 33 tornadoes according to the National Weather Service statistics,” Hillaker says. “In a typical year, we have about 48 tornadoes in the state, so we had about two-thirds of the usual number and only two of those storms were particularly strong, as far as tornadoes go.” 

The largest tornado of 2010 hit near Sibley in northwest Iowa, but Hillaker says it fortunately didn’t hit near a populated area.

Iowa’s brief stint with unseasonably warm weather is coming to an abrupt end. High temperatures hit the 50s in many sections of the state today, but National Weather Service Meteorologist Craig Cogill says a wintery mix of freezing rain, snow, wind and cold temperatures is on the way.

A cold front that started creeping into western Iowa this afternoon will sweep across the rest of the state tonight. “By tomorrow morning, temperatures across much of the state will be in the teens and 20s with a rather brisk northwest wind,” Cogill said.

A Winter Weather Advisory is posted for areas north and west of a line extending from Creston to Des Moines to Waterloo. Much of far western Iowa is under a Winter Storm Watch.

“The main concern with this is accumulations of some ice due to freezing rain. We may see one-to-two-tenths of an inch of ice,” Cogill said. “Way up in far northwest Iowa, they may see some significant snowfall of four to six inches.” Motorists are advised to check on road conditions by visiting www.511ia.com calling 5-1-1.