Winter Storm Expected to Drop 4 to 8 Inches in East & Northeast Iowa

A band of snow is expected to develop, and the snow fall will become heavy at times tonight. Total snow accumulations of four to eight inches are expected.

The National Weather Service in the Quad Cities has issued a Winter Storm Warning for a portion of the area which begins at 6:00 PM tonight (Feb 8, 2018) and continues until Friday at 6:00 PM. Some of the counties effected are Benton, Buchanan, Linn, and points east and south. The rest of the area is under a Winter Weather Advisory, issued by the NWS in Des Moines, that begins at 3:00 PM this afternoon and continues until Friday at 9:00 PM.

The counties in pink in the map below will be under the Winter Storm Warning. The counties in purple will be under the Winter Weather Advisory.

Snow is expected to redevelop across much of northern Iowa this afternoon and spread slowly southward into east central Iowa Thursday night and early Friday morning. In addition, northeast winds will increase late tonight into early Friday morning with patchy blowing and drifting snow expected, especially in rural, open areas.

Points east and south of Waterloo could see 3 to 6 inches of snow by Friday morning. The snow will then continue on Friday and spread south some as the day progresses. By the time the snow decreases late Friday afternoon, at least 4 to 8 inches of snow accumulation is expected.

Points west and north of Waterloo could see snow accumulations of 3 to 5 inches
are expected with locally higher amounts possible in the vicinity of Waterloo and Tama.

More periodic rounds of accumulating snow are likely from late Friday night through Saturday night. Several inches of additional snow accumulation are possible during this stretch. At the moment, the favored area for higher amounts of accumulating snow is south of Interstate 80.