First Snowfall of the Season

A day before Thanksgiving, hampering travel plans or allowing some to see a white Thanksgiving for the first time for quite a while. Previous years have struggled to accumulate November snow and actually keep it on the ground for a while into the holidays. However this year portions of the state were able to add on the snow pack right on time for the holiday travelers over portions of Iowa. Needless to say with less than 24 hours before Thanksgiving day it was going to have no problem sticking around for the holiday.

This snowfall was actually setup to the north of the surface low pressure system and a ways north of any actual frontal boundary. The cold front with this system was draped from southern Missouri through Arkansas and back into eastern Texas, a stationary front was located from central to northeast Missouri and then through central Illinois and further to the northeast. However, a jet streak over the Great Lakes and one over the Central Plains allowed for a favorable region for strong divergence aloft and therefore upward motion occurring over portion of Iowa and small portions of the surrounding states. The best snowfall occurred just before Noon yesterday and into the early afternoon hours in central Iowa; eastern Iowa saw the snow begin in the early afternoon hours and continue into the early nighttime hours.

Forecasted snowfall amounts were in the 2-5 inch range, as Snow Advisories were issued Tuesday night for portions of southeast Iowa. Wednesday morning these advisories were expanded further to the northwest, then including areas of Ames & Des Moines as well as Cedar Falls/Waterloo area. This event was seemingly well forecasted, mainly given the timing of snow which was centered over times when a lot of holiday travel is occurring. Accumulated snowfall extended as far northwest as Fort Dodge (dusting) and as far west as Jefferson (dusting); northward extent included areas of Waterloo (1 inch) eastward into Illinois. The rain/snow line was featured from extreme northwest Illinois, nearly along the Mississippi River valley and into extreme southeastern Iowa into the northeast corner of Missouri. Areas to the north and west of that line received the snow amounts, while other areas west and south saw mainly rain and a few snow flurries.

Heaviest amounts of snow came in patches, one around the Des Moines area and the others to the west of Iowa City & Cedar Rapids along with another patch northeast of there. 5.2 inches was the high amount of the day, this reported 2 miles southwest of Clive; a 4.8 inch amount was not far behind and it came from the airport in Des Moines. Other areas around Des Moines received snowfall amounts in the 3-4 inch range, Ames only received an inch of snow however as the gradient really dropped off the amounts as you went outside of the bands that occurred. Out of the Davenport NWS office, 4.5 inches in Norway, IA was the high amounts; 4.2 inches near Manchester and 4 inches in Delaware. Cedar Rapids had 2.3 inches accumulated, Davenport NWS office received 0.2 inches.

Check out the Co-op Observers map for all of the snowfall reports across the state from yesterday. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!