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Posted under Hot Shots, Photo

UPDATED at 4:30 PM

Tonight: Mostly clear. Low: 5-9. Wind: W 5-10 mph.

Friday: Mostly sunny and warmer. High: 26-30. Wind: SW 10-15 mph.

Friday Night: Mostly clear. Low: 8-15. Wind: SW 5-10 mph.

Saturday: Mostly cloudy with flurries possible. High: upper 20s.

Sunday: Mostly sunny. High: mid 20s.

Monday: Mostly sunny and windy (S 15-25 mph). High: near 30.

Tuesday: Mostly cloudy. High: near 30.

Wednesday: Partly to mostly cloudy. High: low 30s.

Thursday: Mostly cloudy and windy (S 15-25 mph). High: low 30s.

 We started the day out with clouds and at noon we were still had clouds overhead (see map below). During the early afternoon the clouds have cleared and now we have a mostly clear sky. The mostly clear sky will remain tonight and through Friday.

A clear sky, a light wind and lots of snow on the ground will combine for a colder night. Low temperatures Friday morning will be in the single digits. Here is how much snow was on the ground this morning.A cold front is forecast to track across Iowa Saturday with more clouds and a few flurries late Saturday afternoon into Saturday night. Here is the HPC forecast position of the cold front Saturday evening.

High pressure moves back into the area with sunshine Sunday and Monday. More clouds are expected Monday with highs in the low 30s. High temperatures in the low 30s are expected Wednesday and Thursday as well…a little January thaw.

We are tracking a possible area of low pressure to develop south of Iowa Thursday and move northeast into Iowa Friday. Right now I am going to go with a mostly cloudy for Thursday and rain/snow moving into the area Thursday night and Friday. This storm has the potential to be a sloppy with a mix of precipitation. We will continue to track this for you and have more details as the day gets closer. Here is the HPC forecast map for Thursday morning.

Posted under Forecast Discussion

From NWS
1886: A severe ice storm struck portions of northeastern Iowa when heavy accumulations of freezing rain brought down trees and branches across the area. An observer near Garnavillo in Clayton County wrote that “the rain…mostly froze as it fell, and coated twigs of trees with ice an inch thick, and many trees were seriously broken. Our telephone wires were broken in many places. Large old trees and large limbs broken. In the woods many trees bent their tops so the ground, and the roads were impassible until the tree tops were cut off.” In Fayette County it was reported that “ice formed on the trees so thick that many limbs, from four to eight inches through, were broken and the tops of the trees, thirty feet high, rested on the ground in many instances blockading the roads.” An observer at Waukon noted that “ice formed on the trees to such an extent that in very many cases our shade trees were ruined. All the afternoon and night it was a continual crash.”

3 January 1777 → An overnight freeze enabled George Washington and his troops to flank the British at Trenton, cross their lines at Princeton, and seek security in the hills of northern New Jersey. 3 January 1913 → The U.S. land record for the lowest barometric pressure in a non-tropical storm in the Lower 48 was set at Canton, NY: 28.20 inches. 3 January 1949 → Up to two feet of snow propelled by 70mph winds caused the deaths of tens of thousands of sheep and cattle from the Central Rockies to the High Plains. Snow drifts reached 30 feet high. 3 January 2000 → At 4:10pm an F3 tornado ripped through Owensboro, KY with winds of 180 mph. A dozen buildings at Kentucky Wesleyan College were damaged. 3 January 2002 → An ice storm struck Atlanta, canceling thousands of flights. The storm was caused by a low pressure system that developed over the Gulf of Mexico, crossed northern Florida, and then headed up the East Coast.

Posted under Weather History