After a bitterly cold morning with temperatures between 5 and 10 degrees below zero, we will gradually warm up as we head into the weekend. Our big weather story today is a system that will bring light snow and areas of freezing rain/drizzle across much of our region Friday evening and Saturday. Saturday is one FIRST ALARM DAY due to the possibility of freezing rain and/or drizzle. The amount of moisture will be less than a tenth of an inch, but that will be enough to cover the roads with a layer of ice and give us a layer of snow, making travel very slippery and dangerous late Friday evening through at least midday Saturday. Travel conditions will improve late Saturday evening into Saturday night. Sunday will be mostly cloudy, dry and mild, with high temperatures in the mid to upper 30s. We are tracking another system that could bring light rain and snow on Monday. This will be followed by another blast of cold Canadian air that will keep temperatures in the low to mid 20s Celsius for most of next week.

It will still be cold tonight, although not as icy as last night. By daybreak, temperatures drop to 0 to -5 °C. Fortunately, the wind will be very light and wind chill will not be a major problem. Friday will be partly to mostly cloudy and slightly warmer, with highs in the upper teens to low 20s.

The system we observed early in the weekend will extend from the Colorado Rockies to southwest Iowa by late Friday evening. This system doesn’t produce much moisture. If it all came in the form of snow, we would actually be looking at an accumulation of about an inch or less. However, that will not be the case. There will be some snow, but the warmer air coming into the region with this system will make things a little messy. By late Friday evening, warmer air aloft will result in rain a few thousand feet above the surface, but surface temperatures will remain below freezing. This means that falling precipitation freezes on contact, making roads and surfaces very slippery.

At this point, I expect areas of light freezing drizzle and snow to form across northwest Iowa by early Friday evening, extending into southern Minnesota after 9 or 10 p.m. There will be occasional light freezing rain/drizzle mixed with snow Friday night into Saturday morning. There may be heavy icy conditions on the roads on Saturday morning. Light freezing drizzle and snow will gradually clear the region from west to east by early afternoon and travel conditions will improve as temperatures rise to the low 30s on Saturday afternoon. This prediction could change somewhat. So stay informed and keep your KEYC First Alert Weather app handy. The weather team will monitor the system very closely and provide updates on current developments. And don’t worry, we’ll be out and about this weekend keeping an eye on things. Keep an eye on the app, KEYC.com and KEYC12.4 – our 24/7 weather channel – for the latest information.

We’ll take a break on Sunday where it will be mostly cloudy and warmer, with highs in the mid to upper 30s.

We are tracking another system that will bring areas of light rain and snow on Monday. This system will be followed by another blast of cold Canadian air that will keep our high temperatures in the low to mid 20s C through the end of next week. Our long range models suggest a system that could bring some more light snow by the end of next week, but there is no sign of anything major until Christmas. Of course, if we look that far out, things can change. The weather team will be monitoring closely and we will provide updates as the holiday approaches.

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