Foggy & Getting Colder!

The last several days across the state have been quite gray and dreary looking for the most part. Despite some snowfall over portions of the state, it has been foggy or there has been blowing snow that has never allowed visibilities to go much more than a couple of miles. This fog got very dense last night across much of northwest and north-central Iowa, prompting the NWS offices to issue a dense fog advisory as visibilities were down to near zero! This fog continue through the night across the area, with so much moisture in place allowing snowfall to occur that stuck to everything. Trees are coated with this thick wet snow, along with everything possible seems to have a coating. This fog is likely to continue through the day over some areas of the state, with more snowfall moving in by nightfall.

This light snow may occur across portions of the state, not much accumulation expected anywhere. Western to central Iowa seeing a half-inch to near inch and eastern Iowa also seeing around an inch of snow during the day on Monday. After this quick clipper system moves through, pulling the cold front with it we can expect temperatures to drop into some very chilly ranges. Highs Monday in the near 20 to near 30 range from northwest to southeast, lows from near zero to mid teens. By Tuesday, highs will struggle to get out of the single digits in northwest Iowa with the rest of the state not doing much better only getting into the teens. Tuesday night will start the year off on a very cold note, wind chill values for the morning will be well into the negative teens and twenties over the state. Actual temperature values for when you wake up on Wednesday will range from near zero in the southeast to near -10 in the northwest!

Luckily these temperature won't last long, as the trough responsible for these will move off to the east during mid-week. By Thursday and Friday you can see highs rising into the mid 20s to mid 30s and then even higher into the lower 40s for the southwest. Currently there isn't much mention of precip after the early week system and blast of cold air. Enjoy the cold start to the year, but remember it only gets warmer! Have a happy new year!