A strong storm system will deliver a round of fog, accumulating snow and mix for some with rain in southern Iowa. The system starts Thursday afternoon, peaks Thursday night and will exit later Friday morning. The maps for rain, snow, and ice have been released, so read on for details…
A surface low has developed near the Oklahoma/Texas panhandle this evening and will quickly eject northeast into the plains by Thursday. High RH values of 90-100% will build into the state by Thursday morning with a round of patchy dense fog across much of the state before the event arrives by midday. The areas suspect to no fog will be across extreme eastern Iowa where values are lacking Thursday morning. Rain will begin to work into southwest Iowa by around noon Thursday with some of this in the form of a mix. This activity will continue to lift north Thursday afternoon with all precipitation changing over to snow across northern Iowa by the evening time frame. As warm air works north, we will need to watch for localized spots of sleet/freezing rain mix across northeast Iowa. Snow north and rain along/south of interstate 80 will continue overnight into Friday morning. Snow and rain should taper off from west to east throughout Friday morning.
The highest snowfall amounts of 2-6″ will exist across the northern two/three county rows which is areas including Algona, Charles City, Decorah, Emmetsburg, Mason City, Sheldon and Spencer. A cutoff is expected near the mix zone, so I have sliced totals a bit in these areas to warrant more rain than snow. So, with that, the areas shaded in a trace-2″ of snow will have the potential to underachieve.
We will also have some freezing rain with the event as mentioned above and that will be on the order of a quick glaze-0.10″ of ice accumulation generally confined near and around highway 20 across northeast Iowa.
The warmer side to the storm system will bring light to moderate rain to the southern portion of state. Rainfall amounts of a 0.25-0.50″ is expected over a large portion of southern Iowa with an area of 0.5-1.0″ closer to southeast Iowa. In addition to the precipitation, the system will have an east/southeast wind at 5-15 MPH statewide.
Stay tuned to Iowa Storm Center.com for further updates.
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