WE PAUSE FOR A SHORT BREAK IN THE ACTION...
New Years came and went as it always does. However, it was far more problematic for those of you in the southeast half of my area where snow and freezing rain made for some challenging conditions. As far as storms go this was far from a major but it had enough ice and snow to make it a slow go in spots.
As far a snow is concerned, the heaviest amounts (1-4") were concentrated over southeast Iowa, the general location models pinpointed for the heaviest accumulations. Here's some preliminary reports through Friday evening.
The satellite late Thursday showed the storms energy moving rapidly northeast and weakening as it gets sheared off by the northern branch of the jet. That allowed the system to make a hard right just in time to keep most of the snow and ice southeast of a line from Grinnell to Cedar Rapids and south of Dubuque. Far southeast Iowa and WC Illinois took the worst of the freezing rain.
Now that the first storm of the year has departed, the next few days will see a pause in the action. That means fairly quiet weather outside of some very light snow or flurries Saturday night, especially south and east of the Quad Cities. Nothing more than a dusting expected out of that. With much of the area now under snow cover temperatures will be hard pressed to get out of the mid 20s the rest of the weekend.
The next order of business is a 500mb upper air low that digs into the Midwest with the potential of some snow next Wednesday. Here's the energy and associated circulation carving out a trough centered on Iowa..
The EURO very early in the game depicted this for snowfall from the system. However, the latest run is weaker and lower on totals with more of a southerly track
Clearly, it's far too early to get cute with specifics but there's some evidence for at least a light snow producing system the middle of the coming week. However, confidence is low on amounts and location so for now we'll leave it as something to watch.
Meantime, I'm in Bangor, Maine with the family. Bangor is the home of Stephon King the epic horror and suspense author who has also inspired many great movies. He still lives in a mansion here and we are taking a 3 hour tour where we will see places that Stephen King has lived and worked, places that have inspired his stories, and actual film locations from his movies. In the Stephen King world, Bangor is know as "Derry," Maine. Overall, I'm not a big fan of Mr. Kings topics but I think it has the potential to be an interesting experience. Here's his place in Bangor...home sweet home!
With that I'll call it a day and let you know how the tour goes. Roll weather....TS
