Forecasters say another winter storm bringing ice and snow has the potential to hit Iowa by as soon as Tuesday night, the last thing utility repair crews and tens of thousands of powerless people across Iowa want to hear. Jeff Johnson, meteorologist at the National Weather Service, says the storm system is still developing and heading for the Midwest.
Johnson says the approaching storm may be a little warmer than the last one, meaning, southern Iowa might be looking at rain initially, with more ice for northern Iowa, but "it doesn’t look as significant as the one this weekend, fortunately, although that could change." He says the system should pull over Iowa by Thursday, changing over from rain and ice to snow, with the snow possibly continuing into Thursday night.
Johnson says areas that were buried by this weekend’s snowstorm may be getting still more snow — and problems with power, trees and transportation. He says the current projections call for the most snow to fall along the northern Iowa-southern Minnesota border, but again, he says the storm system is still pretty far out there and its track and intensity may change.
As for the storm that just whacked Iowa over the weekend, Johnson says it was a wicked combination of thick ice, wet snow and strong winds. He says a large section of Iowa, roughly the eastern half, got a lot of ice while northern and northeastern Iowa got up to nine inches of snow, with six inches in many areas, ranging from Des Moines to Davenport. Up to 250,000 Iowans were without electricity at the peak on Sunday, a number utility companies say they’ve nearly cut in half.