FIRST THE COLD, NOW THE SNOW...

Saturday morning temperatures across the Midwest looked more like January than April. Readings tumbled to record or near record levels all across the region. In my area Burlington set a record with a low of 16 and Dubuque tied theirs at 11. Here in Cedar Rapids we dropped to 13 missing ours by 1 degree.

Here's a sampling of lows around my local area Saturday morning.

A broader perspective of 7:00am temperatures Saturday morning.

Here's the lowest wind chills around Iowa Saturday morning. Several places below zero, quite impressive for April 7th when actual lows are typically in the mid to upper 30s.

This is part of a cold snap that has brought the coldest start to April in most areas since 1982 (36 years ago). The monthly departure looks like this through the 7th.

The average temperature departure in Cedar Rapids before Saturday was running 16 degrees below normal per day! It's now closer to -17.

Thanks to some late night clouds lows won't be as harsh Sunday morning but will still dip to the lower 20s around much of my area which is far below normal.

Sunday a weakening disturbance will slide southeast across Iowa. Fighting dry air and shearing aloft the system will do what it can to produce snow. With limited moisture and decreasing lift over time amounts in my area look to be greatest in Iowa before decreasing east of the Mississippi. Here's some snowfall forecasts from Sunday night. Most suggest accumulations of 1-3" in my local area with a few isolated spots pushing 4" in the NW.

The GFS.

The NAM

The hi-res 3k NAM

The NWS in the Quad Cities.

It appears the snow will not get underway until late in the day Sunday. Occasional snow will continue into early Monday. Roads should be in pretty good shape until sunset and beyond Sunday night when surfaces will become snow covered and slick, especially in the advisory areas.

For the most part this should be a low impact event but there will be areas where travel is impacted and slowed some as snow accumulates Sunday night. Stay tuned for further details Sunday as the storm makes its way across the Midwest. Until then, roll weather...TS