ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST...

The 11th winter storm of 2020-21 has come and gone. For my area it was a glancing blow, especially in the southeast where little if any impacts were found. As you can see that was not quite the case in my northern counties were 4" fell around Dubuque and 6.5" piled up near Waterloo. Waukon measured 7" and Ringsted up near the Minnesota border had the most with an 8" total.

Here's some individual plots from around the region.

You can sure see how the worst of the storm clobbered the area just to the west where 40-50 mph winds created blizzard conditions in some areas west of I-35. The saving grace was the fact it was a heavy wet snow which lowered amounts a couple inches and somewhat lowered the blowing.

Here's a picture of the storm when the circulation center was near the Quad Cities drifting slowly southeast. That's has the classic text book look of an energetic storm. I love these hi-res GOES satellite images.

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THE ROAD AHEAD...

The next order of business is resolving a pattern a northwest flow pattern with imbedded energy and periods of light snow or flurries. Our departing system could provide some Saturday, especially early.

The next one arrives Saturday night and Sunday with a third possible later Monday or Tuesday. These are not well organized and moisture is questionable along with the location of the forcing. Until that becomes clearer the old broad brush approach seems applicable with amounts from each system ranging from a dusting to perhaps an inch. All told between now and Tuesday, most areas should see 1 to as much as 2" totals.

Here's what models are indicating for snow in that period Saturday through Tuesday.

The EURO

The GFS

The Canadian GEM

The 12K NAM

Beyond that, there continue to be signs of a wintery pattern and colder temperatures as I advertised more than a week ago through the remainder of the month. This is the long range outlook for temperatures from the Climate Prediction Center

With that, I will move on and wish you all an excellent weekend. You're halfway through January. It will be spring before you know it! Roll weather...TS