Lightning, thunder and scattered downpours punctuated thunderstorms that rolled over Iowa late last night and this morning, and forecasters say more powerful storms are expected late this afternoon and tonight.
Meteorologist Tyler Ryan, at the National Weather Service, says the timeline shows the storms may start around the time of the evening commute.
“We are expecting storms to fire to the western half of the state around 5 o’clock, and those storms are expected to intensify and eventually just sweep across the state,” Ryan says. “Most likely it’s going to pack somewhat of a punch here and then eventually, we expect it to possibly sweep out of the state midnight, maybe around 1 o’clock in the morning.”
Ryan says there’s a possibility for severe weather later today for most of the state, while the southwestern quarter of Iowa is believed to be at the greatest risk.
“All modes of severe weather will be on the table,” Ryan says, “damaging winds and large hail are the primary concerns, but we cannot rule out a few isolated tornadoes and maybe a strong tornado or two as well.”
The possibility for severe weather is the least in far northwestern Iowa, where six counties will be under a Winter Weather Advisory from 6 PM though 9 AM tomorrow. Ryan says that corner of the state may see snow and ice.
“We’re going to have temperatures drop to the low 30s, but with a little bit of moisture that is present behind this system, it’s going to bring in that cooler air,” he says. “We could have some sort of freezing implications there on the roads, those elevated surfaces. So that’s something we’re also keeping a very close eye on for maybe into early tomorrow morning and late tonight.”
Coincidently, parts of southeast Iowa are expecting high temperatures today in the low 70s.