DES MOINES, Iowa It hasn t been this cold in decades.
The National Weather Service in Des Moines says the long range 14-day forecast includes sub-zero overnight low temperatures that haven t been seen since 1996.
Highs will be in the single digits and lows will be ten to 30-degrees below normal throughout most of the week.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Roger Vachalek says the low temperature on January 30, 1996 was negative-13 degrees.
The low temp the very next day was negative-21 degrees. I would say that was much worse than this in absolute terms, but again if you haven t lived through this before, a long stretch of cold weather, of course it always seems bad.
editor@messengernews.net -Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
John Mosley, of Fort Dodge, gets a little snow blowing done on Friday afternoon along First Avenue North. With temperatures and wind chills about to take a plunge starting today into next week, working outside for too long will be a health hazard. -Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
John Mosleyâs breath begins to fog his glasses Friday afternoon as he works to remove snow along a sidewalk on 15th Street. Colder air is anticipated for Fort Dodge and the state starting today and lasting all week, according to Jim Lee, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Des Moines.
Possible Record Low Temps This Weekend in Iowa
The high temps in January weren t anything to get too excited about, and thankfully it didn t get terribly cold.but all that is about to change for the first weekend of February.
In January, the mercury in Waterloo failed to get higher than 40 . On January 13 and 20 the high temperature reached exactly 40 and it never got any warmer than that the entire month. It was the first time in 10 years that a high temperature in January failed to get
above 40 .
On the other side of things, five days in January featured low temperatures below zero. The coldest occurred on 1/28 when it bottomed-out at -13 .
BLIZZARD WARNING Issued in Iowa
The National Weather Service in Des Moines has issued a
BLIZZARD WARNING from
9 AM Thursday to 6 AM Friday for portions of Iowa including the cities of Waterloo, Marshalltown, Ames, Mason City, and Fort Dodge.
Temperatures look to remain around 35 through the early morning hours of Thursday, but then drop to around 20 by late-Thursday afternoon, to the single digits by Friday morning. Wind chills will fall below zero by Thursday evening.
As the temperatures plummet on Thursday, wet or slushy roads may flash freeze and quickly become very slippery.
As the rain turns to snow, 40+ MPH wind gusts will create widespread blowing snow and blizzard conditions at times.