Good Saturday morning! Hope you all are staying well and safe as a powerful storm system continues to bring very strong winds and blizzard conditions to the area. Here is a look at the radar this morning (as of 5:55 AM CDT):
Here is how the radar should look going throughout our Saturday. This animation below goes through 8pm CDT this evening. Note the snow band across Nebraska will gradually shift east through the day. We will also be watching for very heavy snowfall to build across northwest Iowa (Spencer, Sheldon, Storm Lake, Estherville areas) going throughout this morning, and note that the snows continue to build south and eastward with time throughout the day over Iowa.
Here is a look at additional snowfall accumulation going from now (6am CDT) to 9pm CDT this evening. OVER a foot of snow being laid down by all model data for far northwest Iowa into far northeast Nebraska. Still several more inches to fall for locations further south across south-central Nebraska, then totals continue to taper down to a couple inches into northern Kansas.
VERY strong winds continue to be an issue today. Expect gusts of 40-60mph through about 7pm….then the gusts do die down some overnight….but it remains windy through Sunday. Animation below shows 6-hourly wind gusts from this morning through Sunday morning.
Here is a look at forecast temperatures from this morning through Sunday evening. Incredibly cold as highs stay in the 20s over a large chunk of Nebraska and northwest Iowa. Lows tomorrow morning dip in the upper single digits/low teens for northwest Nebraska as you start to clear the skies out. The coldest morning comes Monday.
Snow finally clears out of Nebraska tonight..with wind-driven snow showers pushing east across Iowa overnight, then continuing throughout the day Sunday…but these will be much lighter in nature.
Looking accumulations through the end of the event, you can still get 1-2″ snows from Des Moines to Cedar Rapids down to Ottumwa, Iowa, but the heavy snows stay across northwest sections of the state.
Have a great day and stay safe this weekend!