The overall expectation for the weather system at the end of the week hasn’t changed much. One trend is that forecast precipitation amounts have lowered somewhat. That isn’t affecting us much, though, because we weren’t planning on heavy snow or heavy rain in our area to begin with.
As the event gets started on Thursday, there may be a period of light freezing rain, mainly for areas north of Highway 30. This may shift because a change of even a couple of degrees anywhere between the ground and 5000 feet up could mean the difference between freezing rain, rain, or snow. While this doesn’t look like it’ll be long-lasting or heavy, a bit of a glaze is possible and would cause some travel issues. Most of the area ought to turn to a chilly rain by afternoon, but far northern Iowa may stay as a wintry mix or snow.
As cooler air moves in Thursday night and early Friday, precipitation will change over to snow. There should be a lull Friday morning before additional snow skirts eastern Iowa later Friday into Friday night. Additional rounds of scattered light snow or flurries are possible this weekend into Christmas Day.
Snowfall accumulations are likely across much, if not all, of the area. At this point, far northern Iowa will probably get the most, and an early estimate would be for a couple of inches there. Lower amounts should happen elsewhere. If the snow band late Friday/Friday night ends up moving farther northwest, then snowfall amounts could be higher in the eastern parts of our area.
Since there are still some questions on how the details of this system will go, stay with KCRG-TV9 as we continue to update our forecast. The bottom line is that we should see some impacts from this weather system and you’ll want to be ready to take some precautions. A blockbuster winter storm is not likely, however.