Spring officially begins on and astronomical note on Saturday at 12:32 pm here in Iowa. It is very likely that the start of our new season will be welcomed with a late winter snowfall. For over a week now, we have been tracking a storm that arrives on Friday with a variety of precipitation.
There have been many forecast for snow totals this week from our a models. Some, at times, have had amounts of 12″ for parts of Iowa.
Right now it looks like 1″ to 3″ could be on the ground by noon on Saturday as you can see by our snowfall outlook graphic.
With the threat of wintry weather over the next 24-48 hours, it might be good to review those winter driving tips since it has been a while and I think we all have spring fever. It is not very common to have snow late in March, but it does occasionally happen. The Blizzard of ‘73 that you probably hear about from time to time happened in early April. One good thing about early spring snows is that they usually do no stick around too long.
There’s good news, and then there’s bad news about the weather coming up in the next 48 hours. The good news is that today will still be decent, with temperatures about 20 degrees above normal. This is actually key in our weather moving forward. A cold front sits to our west and will quickly move through the area Friday afternoon and evening. Along the front, some rain showers are likely, transitioning to snow showers Friday night. March snows are typically a bit more difficult to predict than regular season snows, however confidence is high that this will be a minor snow – generally less than an inch or so. However, roads will probably get slick on Friday night.
Why so little snow? Well, we are coming out of a significant warm spell right now and the graphic you see is the 4″ soiltemperature across the area on March 16th. If anything, the values are a bit higher now, but not by much. The 2″ temperatures are even warmer. What does that mean? It means the snow is going to have to overcome a VERY warm ground even to accumulate in our area. Snowing at night will increase the chance of accumulation, but we should see it melt off pretty quick once the system exits.
Happy St Patrick’s Day! I hope you had a super day today. I was a little worried when the fog was still hanging around at 11 am, but by parade time we were in the sun. Highs responded nicely with 50 sand 60s throughout eastern Iowa.
I had the privilege to MC the parade with Claire Kellett. We were impressed with the 100 plus retires the in the 35th SaPaDaPaSo Parade. We also got talk to lots of people that came great distances to enjoy the day in Cedar Rapids.
Let’s hope everything cooperates for the 36th annual parade on March 17, 2011.
Despite clouds and fog hanging tough for some of us the past couple of mornings, the strong March sunshine managed to burn it off both days and give us some nice afternoons! Highs in Cedar Rapids the past four days have been above 50° each day. We have two more warm days ahead, both of which should crack the 60° mark!
The last time Cedar Rapids had six days in a row with highs above 50° was back in the first half of November from the 5th to the 14th. I’d say this recent warmth has been much deserved!
Also, in the blog post below this one, Josh put up the pictures he took during the parade this afternoon. We also have a video timelapse of the parade… from the view inside the Mobile Weather Lab! It’s on our Facebook page.
There’s no doubt we’ve had some warm temperatures lately, which is certainly some good news. In fact, we’ve been above normal for nearly a week now since the snow is gone and the March sunshine can work it’s magic. Today will be a warm one, but tomorrow (Thursday) will probably be the warmest we’ve seen so far this season. Temperatures will be warming at the surface to the mid-60s in most locations, and a brief touch of 70 for some can’t be ruled out either.
The model image shown is temperatures at 1pm Thursday by the GFS model. Models have even had a cold bias lately so the readings you see are actually a bit too cool more than likely. By 1pm, I would think most communities on Thursday should be pushing 60. Then of course, warming from there probably until 5pm or so. Enjoy the warmth while we can because temperatures will crash going into the weekend as a strong cold front slides through.
Have you ever seen the Northern Lights? I can remember, as a child, driving home one night and looking off to the north. I saw the greatest colored light show I had ever seen dancing in the night sky. As I later learned it was the Northern Lights.
Forecasters are now predicting a 30% chance for a geomagnetic activity within the next 24 to 48 hours. This means the Northern Lights could be prominent Wednesday and Thursday Night.
Spring officially begins on and astronomical note on Saturday at 12:32 pm here in Iowa. It is very likely that the start of our new season will be welcomed with a late winter snowfall. For over a week now, we have been tracking a storm that arrives on Friday with a variety of precipitation.
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