The first snow of the season blanketed parts of eastern and southern Iowa late Wednesday, while the snowstorm whalloped a few neighboring states, right as the Thanksgiving travel rush began to peak. National Weather Service meteorologist Jeff Wallenfang says it’s the first snowfall, not just for Iowa, but for the nation. It hit the Kansas City area, heaviest just northwest of St. Louis and on up to Chicago with depths ranging from two to eight inches, while grazing southeast Iowa, primarily Lee and Des Moines counties, with measurable snowfall as far north in Iowa as Davenport. Wallenfang says the snow’s a little late this year as Iowa usually has falling flakes on or around November 15th, on average. He laughs and says leave it to Mother Nature to hit the region with snow on the busiest travel weekend of the year. The storm system dumped snow as far south as Texas and Oklahoma but oddly, the upper Midwest — Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas — still haven’t gotten any measurable snowfall this season. Wallenfang, who works in the Des Moines office of the National Weather Service, says parts of northern Iowa may see snow within several hours. Snow may fall late tonight and into Friday in northern Iowa, though it will likely pass to our north in Minnesota. He says central Iowa, too, may see the white stuff by tomorrow. The possible snow in northern Iowa could dip south and should change to rain through the day on Friday but if it lasts, it could very well revert back to snow by Friday night and into Saturday. He says accumulation in Iowa from this next storm system is expected to be minimal.