March 27 Snowfall

Once most people fell asleep Wednesday night, the forecast throughout the state mentioned mainly rain as the next system came into play. Only the northern third of the state was expected to see the white stuff and accumulations were expected to generally be under 3 inches. By the time a majority of people woke up however Thursday morning, the view outside for the northern half of Iowa was a mix of sleet and snow. Cold air dramatically entered the state and overnight the forecast quickly changed from a nearly all rain event to a nearly all snow event.

The morning hours saw the heaviest snow bands flow through central Iowa, where some thundersnow or thundersleet also occurred. Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for a few counties just south of I80 in the eastern half of the state for quarter sized hail. This heavier line of precipitation which was able to fall as snow allowed for the heaviest accumulations to occur in central Iowa (see map below). Heaviest goes the area near Gowrie, IA where a range of 4-5 inches likely fell meanwhile near Ames we ended up with ~3 inches. It was quite a mixed bag of precipitation, with some very heavy sleet and practically graupel fell throughout the afternoon/evening here at the Severe Storms & Doppler Radar conference. Nothing like having winter weather when you're talking about tornadoes and hail, etc...

March 27 Snowfall Accumulations


Look for a slight warm up into this weekend before our next system is going to take shape for Sunday and into the work week. A mix of precipitation is once more a possibility for at least the northwestern half of the state, meanwhile thunderstorms may be seen in the southeast. More details on this system will likely be made on Sunday upon my return to Ames from the conference that I'm attending.