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UPDATED at 4:00 PM

Tonight: Cloudy with area of dense fog and 100% chance of light rain. Low: 35-40. Wind: SE 5-10 mph

Friday: Areas of dense fog in the morning. Cloudy and breezy. High: 42-49. Wind: S 10-20 mph.

Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, windy and colder. Low: 22-34. Wind: W/SW 15-25 mph.

Saturday: Partly cloudy, windy (NW 15-25 mph) and colder. High: 20s.

Sunday: Mostly cloudy. SE of a line from Cedar Rapids to Dubuque there is a 20% chance of light snow/flurries. High: low 20s.

Monday: Mostly sunny. High: upper 20s.

Tuesday: Partly cloudy. High: low 30s.

Wednesday: Partly cloudy. High: low 30s.

Thursday: Partly cloudy. High: upper 20s.

The area of low pressure is in Oklahoma this afternoon and will continue to track north toward Iowa overnight. The surface cold front is depicted by the blue line west of Iowa. The front will cross the area late Friday night.

Scattered light rain showers have been spreading north across the state this afternoon. Here is the radar image at 3:30 PM.

Tonight is setting up to be a foggy night. Visibilities will be reduced to less than 1 mile after midnight and remain foggy through mid to late morning Friday. A DENSE FOG ADVISORY is in effect until noon Friday.

The light rain will taper off as the sun comes up Friday morning. The rain totals will be less than 0.25″. The forecast sounding below shows how the profile of the atmosphere will look Friday. There is in inversion that will trap moisture beneath it. That means the sky will remain cloudy through the day. The clouds will not extend very high into the sky.

Ahead of an approaching cold front the high temperatures Friday will be in the 40s. The warmer than normal temperatures are about to come to an end. A cold front is still forecast to push through the area between midnight Friday night and 6 AM Saturday. The official high temperatures for Saturday will be before sunrise. The temperatures throughout the day will be in the 20s. Here is the forecast position of the front from the HPC Saturday morning.

Once the front passes east of Iowa, we turn our attention another area of low pressure to our southeast we are tracking. The northern extent of the moisture from the low may reach our southeastern counties of the viewing area. The timing would be Saturday night and Sunday morning. Light snow and a few flurries are possible southeast of a line from Cedar Rapids to Dubuque. Little to no snow accumulation is expected. Nottoo far southeast of Iowa there will be a narrow band of heavier snow accumulation forecast. Here is the snow forecast from the WSI RPM model.

Next week looks quiet with dry conditions and highs in the 20s and 30s. Model guidance does not show any storms for Iowa to deal with.

Posted under Forecast Discussion

The 24 hour rain totals south of Iowa have been light…mainly less than 0.25″. Those kind of rain totals are expected here later today and tonight.

Posted under Update

The radar currently shows scattered light showers generally along and south of I-80 from Illinois to Nebraska. The showers are tracking north/northeast and will be light across eastern Iowa this afternoon and tonight. Here is the radar:

Rain totals from this storm are going to be lighter than originally thought yesterday. Rain totals will be less than 0.25″. Temperatures will remain warm in the upper 30s and low 40s this afternoon.

Posted under Update

From NWS
1982: Severe winter weather affected Iowa with strong winds, bitterly cold temperatures and wind chills, and blizzard conditions making travel very hazardous. This arctic cold snap lasted from January 7-11 with temperatures bottoming out on the 10th as nearly every station in Iowa reached -20 F or lower and strong northwest winds of 25 to 40 mph with higher gusts produced wind chills of -50 to -100 F. Some of the low temperatures reported on the morning of the 10th included -22 F at Des Moines and Keokuk, -26 F at Charles City, Le Mars, and Red Oak, -27 F at Waterloo, -30 F at Waukon, and -33 F at Guttenberg. Despite only a couple inches of new snow falling the strong winds blew snow already on the ground into drifts several feet deep closing many rural roads and reducing visibility to near zero at times.

This Day in National/World Weather History …

10 January 1911 → The temperature at Rapid City, SD plunged 47 degrees in just fifteen minutes. 10 January 1958 → The world record for a 48-hour rainfall amount was set at Aurere, La Reunion: 97.10 inches. 10 January 1973 → A violent tornado, possibly an F5, hit San Justo, a western suburb of Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the 300 yard wide path through town 65 people were killed and 300 injured. 10 January 1982 → The Cincinnati Bengals beat San Diego in the AFC Championship. The temperature dropped to -9 as the game was played. The wind was blowing over 50 mph, making the wind chill factor 59 degrees below zero. The game is nicknamed theFreezer Bowl.

Posted under Weather History