10 March 2011 Extended Forecast

Yesterdays official snow totals.

Look for skies to slowly clear today.  Winds will be breezy before tapering off this afternoon.  Temps will increase into the Low/Mid 50's Friday before the next system moves in/thru late Friday into Sat morning.  Expect winds to Gust out of the NW to 30-35mph - Very isolated showers overnite Fri.  Rain may mix with snow early Sat morning in a cold NW wind.  Any precip that does fall with this system will be minimal.  The main weather impact will be the gusty winds.  Cooler temps Sat with a struggle to reach 40 in Pow Cty.  The remainder of the weekend will be dry - before yet another weak system develops and moves thru late Sunday giving us a small shot at snowshowers into Monday morning.

The weather pattern of a system moving thru every 2-3 days will persist.

Today thru Sat 10th-12th: Dry Today and Friday - Isolated Rainshowers and Windy overnite Fri - Rain/Snow mix Early Sat - then Dry.  Temps 40 Today - 54 Fri - High 30's Sat
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Sun and Mon 13th/14th: Dry early Sun - then Rain/Snow overnite Sun into Midday Monday - then Dry/Breezy. Temps near 40
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Tues and Wed 15th/16th: Tshowers/Breezy. Temps near 50
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Thurs and Fri 17th/18th: Tstorms/Rain Thurs - Snowshowers/Windy Fri.
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Sat and Sun 19th/20th: Dry.
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Mon thru Fri 21st-25th: Stormy Week as systems move quickly West to East across the mid-section of the country.  Best shot at Winter Precip looks to be mid week - Big story will be well above seasonal rainfall in thunderstorms.  The weather pattern of systems moving thru every 3 days or so will continue thru the end of the month.


On this day in Iowa weather history...
1951: A major winter storm began on March 10th with freezing rain in southern and western Iowa, then quickly switched over to nearly statewide snow that continued uninterrupted for an incredible 90 hours in some sections and intermittently for more than 100 hours in a few locations. Remarkable storm total snowfall accumulations resulted, including 27.2 inches at Iowa City which is the highest storm total snowfall on record anywhere in the state. Of the Iowa City total 21.1 inches fell in just two days on the 11th-12th. The storm brought all travel and transportation to a halt across most of Iowa, closed schools and businesses, and took out communications at times. A state of emergency was declared in some cities including Cedar Rapids where 19.9 inches of snow fell, with 11.1 inches of that total falling on the 12th. At New Hampton 18.0 inches of snow was reported on the 12th alone while Elkader reported 16.0 inches and Osage 13.0 inches. Storm total accumulations included 21.0 inches at Davenport and Marshalltown, 20.0 inches at Oskaloosa, 18.0 inches at Grinnell, 16.5 inches at Fort Dodge, 16.2 inches at Burlington, 16.0 inches at Castana, 15.5 inches at Dubuque, 15.0 inches at Ames, 13.9 inches at Algona, and 13.3 inches at Des Moines. The statewide average snowfall of 14.3 inches from March 10-14 makes this easily the heaviest snow storm on record in Iowa, nearly 4 inches above the second-heaviest storm which occurred on January 2-4, 1971.