11 Nov 2010 Extended Forecast

11 Nov 2010 Extended Forecast

Today 11th - Increasing Clouds with Showers after sunset - Tshowers develop Late - Temps 57.

Fri 12th - TShowers - Breezy - Temps 52/38 - Rain changing to Lt Snow overnite.

Sat 13th - Lt Rain/Snow Mix before going Mostly Cloudy during the afternoon - Temps 40/28.

Sun and Mon 14th/15th - Mostly Cloudy/Dry - Temps Low 40's to near 30.

Tues and Wed 16th/17th - Snowshowers.

Thurs 18th - Partly Cloudy/Dry

Fri 19th - Rainshowers with Gusty South Winds

Sat 20th - Snow with Gusty North Winds - Much Colder

Longterm: Very unsettled after the 18th - Turning Colder (below normal) after the
20th and looks to stay there thru the Christmas Holidays. Looks like my Winter Forecast is on schedule.

Make no mistake; it is very cold way up north. Toward the Arctic Circle, the temperature has already fallen to 20 below zero, and it will keep dropping.

Currently, that bitter air is all bottled up, but a pathway south will open up next week. The cold will get into the North Central states beginning next Thursday when temperatures may not leave the teens in Montana and North Dakota.

The arctic air will spread south and east late next week, possibly triggering a significant lake-effect snow event - and bringing a strong chill as far south as Oklahoma City.


U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed an Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. In proclaiming the holiday, he said "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with lots of pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations".

The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting that the President (Calvin Coolidge) issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday; "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."

In 1953, an Emporia, Kansas shoe store owner named Alfred King had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who served in World War I. King had been actively involved with the American War Dads during World War II. He began a campaign to turn Armistice Day into "All" Veterans Day. The Emporia Chamber of Commerce took up the cause after determining that 90% of Emporia merchants as well as the Board of Education supported closing their doors on November 11 to honor veterans. With the help of then-U.S. Rep. Ed Rees, also from Emporia, a bill for the holiday was pushed through Congress. President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law on May 26, 1954.

Congress amended this act on June 1, 1954, replacing "Armistice" with Veterans, and it has been known as Veterans Day since. Although originally scheduled for celebration on November 11 of every year, starting in 1971 in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October. In 1978 it was moved back to its original celebration on November 11. Since this change, there has been a trend against being closed on the holiday. It began with businesses (excluding banks) and in recent years some schools and local governments have also chosen to remain open.

On this day in Iowa weather history...

1940: An unusually severe early season winter storm dubbed "The Armistice Day Blizzard" struck northern Iowa on November 11-12 with heavy snow, high winds, and bitter cold causing widespread damage and suffering. Primghar reported a storm total of 17.0 inches of snow while Cushing received 13.0 inches and Estherville and Sanborn 12.0 inches each. As a cold front passed through with the storm the temperature plummeted rapidly, by as much as 30 degrees in two hours at some locations, and on subsequent days reached such cold levels that a number of stations reported record low temperatures for so early in the season. The timing of the storm which came at the end of a holiday weekend meant that many people were caught away from home and unprepared for winter weather of this magnitude. Automobile accidents, stalled cars, frozen radiators, and snow drifts over the roads made travel nearly impossible as the storm moved through. Seven people were killed in Iowa, including three whose small plane crashed into Spirit Lake and four hunters who were caught in duck blinds along the Mississippi River and drowned or died of exposure. In neighboring states, especially Minnesota and Wisconsin, there were higher numbers of fatalities amongst hunters as unusually large numbers of ducks were observed on the morning of the 11th and many went out to hunt them and were caught unprepared in the storm, eventually freezing to death. A total of 154 people were killed across the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. Large numbers of livestock perished in the open fields with nearly 4,000 cattle, sheep, and hogs estimated to have been lost. The greatest loss of farm animals was turkeys with between 150,000 and 200,000 of the birds frozen or smothered. It was also estimated that 10 to 15 million bushels of corn were lost in Iowa.