CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Use extra caution when traveling on the roads over the next 12 hours or more, but conditions will gradually improve.

Your first warning: Dense fog will remain this evening, tonight

We are all under a dense fog warning until Friday morning. In many cases visibility was 1/4 mile or less.

Don’t expect much to change here during the night hours. If you are planning a trip, you should exercise special caution. Slow down so you have more time to react to changing conditions and give yourself more time to achieve your goal. Low beam headlights are a must; Avoid high beams in foggy areas. Also check in advance for flight status updates from area airports as this fog extends over much of the region.

Otherwise temperatures will be kept within a very small range overnight. Lows will be in the upper 30s to lower 40s. This should prevent slick roads from developing as we have a good head start above freezing.

Drizzle can also be felt this evening, with occasional showers in some places. These will gradually become a little more numerous towards daybreak and especially later on Friday morning. By midday, fairly widespread rain activity is expected to arrive or develop over us. This will continue into the afternoon and evening with several hours of light to moderate rain.

Before that, visibility should improve temporarily in the morning before it becomes a little cloudy again with the precipitation. This will likely be less dense and less widespread than in recent days.

On Friday, temperatures will climb back toward the mid to upper 40s for most as the storm system moves across the state. However, winds will remain fairly light, in the 5 to 15 mph range.

The rain will mostly end late Friday evening, but parts of our northern zones may see showers into early Saturday. Rainfall totals for most of us will be between 0.25 and 0.50 inches.

The weekend looks good for the most part

With this storm system moving out of our area, the weekend is looking really solid. On Saturday the sky will gradually become sunnier and temperatures will remain mild. Highs will be in the mid 40s to low 50s northeast to southwest.

We will continue to see warm weather Sunday, with highs in the 40s across the area. Remember, our normal highs are only in the upper 20s to low 30s! A mix of sun and clouds is likely again.

Your first warning: Another storm system this year

Things will turn wintry again early next week as a storm system moves across the region. This system is aimed at tracking near and south of the state, with a mix of precipitation on the north side.

This means the chance of rain returns on Monday, with a change to a rain/snow mix or a period of snow only as it ends Monday night into Tuesday. While heavy accumulations are not likely, some slippery roads could develop as this transition occurs. Be ready for changing conditions next week.

In the evening hours of New Year’s Eve it is likely to be drier but colder. All in all, it looks like there are good plans for this vacation.

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