DES MOINES, Iowa - We have plenty of snow.... officially 5.7 inches at the Des Moines Airport with some reports of as much as six and even seven inches in the Central Iowa region. See snow totals map below. We did get the layer of ice, as predicted, generally 1/8 of an inch.
Now comes the wind and blowing snow. Wind gusts as high as 50 miles an hour are possible.
That will create Blizzard conditions in Northwest Iowa, with a Blizzard Warning starting in the Ames region, and going north to the Minnesota state border... and West to Nebraska and South Dakota.
This includes the I-35 corridor from about Huxley to the north. Mason City and Marshalltown are on the eastern edge of the Blizzard Warning.
A Winter Storm Warning is posted for Des Moines to the east, through Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, and including the I-80 corridor east of Des Moines all the way to Davenport, and south of Des Moines to near Osceola, Ottumwa, and Wapello. The rest of Northeastern Iowa, east from Mason City and Marshalltown is underr a Winter Storm Warning.
Like they say.... that's not all.
The temperature will start dropping today, and by late tonight into Sunday morning all of Iowa will be below zero, with dangerous wind chills. The bitter cold will continue for the next few days.