Much of Iowa is under a Blizzard Warning and the Iowa State Patrol is posting photos taken this morning on its Facebook page of mangled cars on snow-packed roads to discourage motorists from venturing out.
With heavy snow falling and strong winds, many areas are seeing white-out conditions. Woodbury County Emergency Management’s Michael Montino says everyone should think twice about going out the next few days.
“This can be dangerous at times,” Montino says, “so we recommend that people take appropriate precautions and do what they can to keep themselves and their families safe.”
Forget driving on the iffy roads, just going outside to shovel the walks or driveway is extremely risky, as he says the bitter cold is dangerous, especially with those strong winds. “If you can avoid going out and traveling during this time, I would highly recommend staying indoors. It is going to be very, very cold, and we’re going to see those wind chills drop into the negatives,” Montino says. “As a result of that, I would recommend avoiding long-term exposure outside to avoid hypothermia and frostbite.”
National Weather Service meteorologist Kristy Carter says storms of this magnitude are fairly rare and usually only occur once or twice per decade.
“We’re already seeing plenty of blowing and drifting snow from what’s already fallen,” Carter says. “We’ve had rates around half an inch to an inch per hour at times through some of our stronger bands in central Iowa. So overall, conditions are pretty hazardous out there on the roadways with completely snow-covered roads.”
Schools and businesses across Iowa are closing by the dozens and many churches are already calling off their Sunday services. One Des Moines TV station has a closing list 266 items long. Carter says it’ll be a good weekend to stay home and stay safe.
“We are going to be looking at dangerous temperatures that are going to be following all the snow, blowing snow, as we get into the weekend and early next week,” Carter says. “We have wind chills as low as 45 below zero, so some of the early mornings — Sunday and Monday — it’s gonna be dangerously cold out there.”
Keep up with the changing forecast at weather.gov.
(By Sheila Brummer at Iowa Public Radio and Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)