DASHING THROUGH THE COLD AND SNOW?

How about that cold front? Talk about a wake up call! Temperatures all around the region dropped 20-25 degrees in a matter of a few hours. Here in Cedar Rapids we plunged 34 degrees from 46 at 6:00am to 12 at 2:00pm. That's an eye opener.

Now that the cold is here, it's here to stay through the middle of next week. Here's the 5 day temperature departure at 5,000 feet ending January 16th.

Projected surface high temperatures on the GFS Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Friday:

Saturday:

Sunday:

You may have noticed there's a meager warm-up Sunday. That's caused by a clipper that dives through the Midwest on Sunday. As is usually the case with clippers, this is a fast moving system with limited moisture so the window for snow will be short...maybe 6-8 hours. However, snow ratios will be high and the potential is there for it to fluff up into the 1-3" range over my area. Maybe a few spots nearing 4" in the north. It's possible that advisories will be issued for some areas in the next couple days if current trends hold.

Here's what the GFS shows for snowfall.

A tighter perspective.

The NAM came in with this.

Here's the EURO from Thursday.

After this a reinforcing Arctic blast will bring another big chill. In those areas that get fresh snow Sunday night blowing and drifting snow will likely be an issues. Sub-zero temperatures and bitter wind chills are also on the table. Here's wind chills Monday night. 40 below to the Iowa border.

Actual lows look like this Tuesday morning.

Tuesday's highs will have a tough time getting above zero where snow cover exists.

From the looks of things we'll be dashing through the cold and some snow in the next few days. Roll weather....TS