Time for a winter reality check. After a week of unseasonable warmth, a major storm system is headed for Iowa. More than 40 counties across the state’s upper half are under a Winter Storm Warning starting at 6 o’clock tonight and running through Sunday night. Craig Cogil is a forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Johnston.
Cogil says we can expect a mixture of sleet and freezing rain to develop later today with the potential of a quarter-inch to a half-inch of ice accumulating by Saturday afternoon. After that, he says it’ll turn to all snow, with up to 13-inches of snow predicted toward the Minnesota border. Parts of central and southern Iowa may see between one and six inches.
Cogil says Mason City may get a foot while Decorah could see 15-inches of snow by Sunday night. He says Iowa’s not alone in having to endure this late winter blast. He says the storm has far-reaching effect, from Kansas, across Nebraska and Iowa and on into Minnesota and Wisconsin..