TIME FOR A BREATHER...

Saturday is Weather School Day here at the ranch in Marion. 50 people are enrolled in the 5 hour class that I and meteorologists Rebecca (RK) Kopleman and Nick (Rocket Man) Stewart will deliver. It's been a big day of final preparations but we are fired up and ready to go. The monitors are in place, so is the sound system and food. 50 chairs were delivered in the snow and silently await the students. Carolyn, Nimbus, and I also found time to shovel 3.5" of heavy wet snow and clean the house. We're good!

We have so much content to deliver that I doubt we will get to it all. We are also planning to video the event and if we are satisfied with the quality we plan to offer the session online. There has also been plenty of interest in doing another weather school at a later date....perhaps focused on severe weather and chasing. Details will be coming right here on TSwails.com

With my day centered on hosting a day of school, I have had little chance to focus on the forecast so I'm going to be brief and to the point.

First the snow, these are the snowfall reports through 10:30 Friday evening. Plenty of 2-4" totals over the SE third of Iowa.

Any lingering snow showers in my far eastern counties will be gone early Saturday. Little if any accumulations are expected. The snow totals on the 3k NAM for the period 6am to 6pm Saturday.

Through next Wednesday it appears there is little to worry about in terms of wintry weather. Temperatures are expected to remain mild for January and some of the snow will melt a bit with highs that will meet the low to mid 30s on a daily basis. The 5 day temperature departures look like this.

Precipitation also appears light with no major storms through midweek.

This is the 5 day snowfall totals ending Wednesday evening. No shoveling. That's a bummer!

The bottom line is that after a cold and snowy week, the pattern relaxes for awhile and we can all take a breather. Have a fantastic weekend and roll weather...TS