It looks like it’ll be a close call for Iowa as they hold the Caucus on Monday, February 1. Late Monday night into Tuesday a huge winter storm will be hitting the region. The NAM and GFS forecast models have been in consistent agreement with the location and how much snow Iowa could get. As much as one foot of snow or more could fall in the Northern and Central parts of the state as the system moves from Southwest to Northeast. It is a very narrow band so there will be a sharp cut off between getting a lot of snow and getting little to no snow. Back here at home, we’ll just see rain. However, note the isobars in both the GFS and NAM runs. They are closely packed together. This means that it’ll be very windy Monday night into Tuesday. Winds will be sustained at around 20 MPH with gusts up to 30 MPH at times during that same time period. I do not recommend using umbrellas during the day Tuesday as the wind will damage them. Rain coats will be a good substitute until the wind dies down. Please also note that things can change before the event and during the event. One small change can throw the whole forecast out the window. Stay tuned as this situation develops.
–Devin Biggs
