It may sound like a day-late April Fool’s joke, but the forecast is actually calling for heavy snow in parts of the state over the next few days. Brad Fillbach, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, says a dozen counties across northern Iowa are under a Winter Storm Watch starting tomorrow night and into Friday afternoon.
Snowfall amounts will vary. “The far northwest corner of the state could see four to eight inches,” Fillbach says. “The farther south and east you go, one to three inches.” Whenever there are large masses of air at different temperatures that collide, Fillbach says there’s always the possibility for rough stuff.
“Not so much severe weather,” he says, “but some of the storms, particularly in southeast Iowa, could be strong but whether they reach the ‘severe’ threshhold, we’re still monitoring that situation.”
Whatever snow does fall, Fillbach says it shouldn’t stick around very long. “You’re looking at highs Saturday in the low 40s and for Sunday, lower 50s, so a return to near-normal conditions for this time of the year,” he says. In the longer-range forecast, Fillbach says temperatures by early next week should remain in the 50s for daytime highs.
(Reporting by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)