Iowans may hear the rumble of thunder late tonight as forecasters say we’re under the threat of severe weather for the first time this year.
Meteorologist Dylan Dodson, at the National Weather Service, says there’s the potential for a one-two punch of storms tonight and beginning again late tomorrow afternoon.
“It’s going to start generally around 11 pm and then beyond, so it’ll be late tonight into early Friday morning,” Dodson says. “That’ll be mainly over western into central Iowa, and the primary threat with that is going to be large hail, but we could see some stronger winds with that as well.”
Forecasters say a second, stronger storm system is expected to move in behind the first, likely bringing Iowa two straight days of foul weather.
“We’re going to see storms start to develop Friday afternoon and into the evening, and those will kind of be moving from west to east through the state,” Dodson says. “We could be looking at damaging winds and large hail with those, and then even the potential for a tornado with those storms.”
The storm fronts are bringing Iowa much warmer weather, with high temperatures forecast today in the 50s and 60, with 70s possible tomorrow. In a Radio Iowa interview, Dodson was asked if we’re done with snow for the season.
“I wouldn’t say so. We can definitely still get snow March and even in April, so I wouldn’t rule it out completely,” he says. “It’s certainly possible we could get a storm that moves through that brings us some snow. The main thing is, the snow doesn’t stick around quite as long at this time of year because it’s easier to get warmer. So I wouldn’t rule out the snow. Don’t put the shovels away yet.”
Records show our last snowfall for the season is typically in April, but we’ve seen snow in May. A record snowstorm May 1st through 3rd in 2013 dropped ten inches and more on parts of Iowa.