Lots of sunshine across parts of eastern Iowa at noon. Clouds are moving east/northeast.
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This post was written by Schnack on April 16, 2013
Weather Update 9:30 PM
A FREEZING RAIN ADVISORY remains in effect tonight and Thursday morning (purple color). The tan color is a WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY. Those counties will have some sleet mixed in making the roads slick there as well.
UPDATED at 9:55 PM: the winter weather advisory has been cancelled for Bremer, Butler and Franklin.
The atmosphere near Decorah is setting up for when precipitation falls to be rain changing to freezing rain or freezing drizzle later tonight. There needs to be a cold layer of air above and below the warm layer. See image blow.
At 9 PM the surface temperatures are still slightly above freezing 34F or 1.1C. The temperatures higher up in the atmosphere are above freezing until about 500 mb.
This means as the ice crystal at 500 mb falls through part of the atmosphere above freezing it will melt…until it reaches the ground. The temperatures are forecast to reach the freezing point around 2-5 AM Thursday. At that time any precipitation that falls would be freezing rain or freezing drizzle. Surface temperatures are forecast to get above freezing around 9 or 10 AM Thursday.
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This post was written by Schnack on April 10, 2013
Weather Update 9:15 PM
Low pressure is located in eastern Kansas with a warm front northeast across the Iowa/Missouri state line. Showers and thunderstorms have been developing in central Iowa this evening and are moving northeast. There has been isolated severe storms in far north central Iowa and southern Minnesota. Showers and thunderstorms are expected to become widespread overnight and into early Wednesday morning across eastern Iowa. The freezing rain in northwest Iowa will track northeast and stay in western Iowa. Locally heavy downpours are expected in eastern Iowa with a slight chance of a strong storm or marginally severe overnight. Hail and high wind would be the threat.
There is still a wide range in temperatures at this hour across Iowa. Temperatures are in the low 70s across SE Iowa…while in NW Iowa temperatures are in the low 30s with thunderstorms, sleet and freezing rain.
The forecast from earlier this evening is still on track. Click here.
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This post was written by Schnack on April 9, 2013
12:30 PM Weather Update
The atmosphere was very dry last night and has remained that way through the this morning. Here is the morning sounding from Davenport. The sounding shows the profile of the atmosphere.
There has been very little moisture with the low tracking across the Midwest in the last 12 hours. The latest radar shows a few scattered light snow showers in NW Iowa. The mild temperatures in eastern Iowa will drop as a cold front drifts south this afternoon. Those snow showers are tracking southeast and we could see a few of them later today into the evening. Little to no snow accumulation is expected.
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This post was written by Schnack on February 14, 2013
8 PM Weather Update
Low pressure is located over southern Minnesota this evening. The low is still forecast to track southeast into the southern half of Wisconsin by Thursday morning.
The evening sounding from Davenport shows there is dry air in eastern Iowa that needs to be overcome before any precipitation reaches the ground.
Here is the radar this evening showing returns, but again in Iowa we have dry air and none of what you see on the radar in Iowa is reaching the ground. What you see on the radar in Minnesota is light snow reaching the ground.
The WSI RPM model (below) shows we should start to see some light snow/flurries by midnight across northern half of Iowa. As the precipitation begins to fall and reach the ground there might be a brief period of freezing rain and/or sleet mixed in. No ice accumulation is expected before it changes over to just snow.
By 7 AM Thursday, there might be a few locations where the roads will be slick.
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This post was written by Schnack on February 13, 2013
Weather Update at 9:30 PM
Image Courtesy: Iowa Environment Mesonet
Fog is no longer a concern in eastern Iowa. The warm weather we have had lately is about to be replaced with much colder temperatures. The cold front is now in western Iowa. Here is the surface map at 9 PM.
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This post was written by Schnack on January 11, 2013
Weather Update at Noon
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.
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This post was written by Schnack on January 10, 2013
Double Low
We will have to wait and see how much of an impact the northern low will play when it comes to this weekend. Right now it looks like the northern low in MN/WI will be producing all of the snow. The low that is southeast of Iowa will be more of a rain producer for parts of Iowa south and east.
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This post was written by Schnack on December 6, 2012
