It’s raining in northwest Iowa and forecasters says it’ll change to snow soon and move across a wide section of the state. Some areas could see a foot of flakes by Friday. A Winter Storm Warning is posted for more than 30 counties across Iowa’s northern half. Meteorologist Brad Small, at the National Weather Service, says this has the makings of a sizeable storm.
Small says, “There could be some sprinkles or light snow this morning and that will certainly increase by later in the day when we’ll see moderate to heavy snow by the afternoon and early evening hours.” At the center of the bull’s eye, forecasters say the Fort Dodge area may get five to nine inches of snow this afternoon, with two more inches falling tonight.
“Northern Iowa is under the gun for the worst,” Small says. “Probably the Highway 20-Highway 30 corridors, in that region, sweeping from northwest into east-central Iowa where amounts will range from five-to-ten inches, depending on where you’re at. It will vary quite a bit.
Down by the metro area of Des Moines, amounts could just be a few inches. Up by Ames, we could be looking at five to six inches.” Once the storm moves out of Iowa by early Friday, Small says we should be in for a warm-up by the weekend.
“There will be a rebound, a considerable warming ahead of another strong system, but it looks like the path of the precipitation in that storm will be to our northwest,” he says. “That’s good news, however, if you look even farther ahead out to Tuesday and Wednesday, there is another storm that looks like it’s got a bead more on Iowa. That’s something to keep an eye on.”
Find the full forecast at: www.weather.gov.
By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City