Snow Possible for Iowa and Nebraska

(Des Moines, IA) -- A weather pattern is moving across the Great Plains this weekend, bringing snow to parts of Nebraska and Iowa.

"A lot of it is just kind of melting as hits the ground," said National Weather Service Meteorologist Katie Gross in Valley, Nebraska, where they've seen periods of light snowfall for most of the day Saturday, "we've had a couple reports of just kind of a trace of snow making it to the surface so far today."

She says snow falling over the evening is part of a separate system that will move out of western Iowa early Sunday morning. This same system could bring around two inches of snow in the Omaha metro, and around three inches of snow near the Nebraska/Kansas border.

Meanwhile, in Iowa, parts of the central and eastern parts of the state could see additional amounts, and several areas are under weather advisories through the overnight and morning on Sunday.

Meteorologist Craig Cogil with the National Weather Service in Johnston says heavier amounts of snow will fall east and south of the Des Moines metro overnight and into Sunday morning. "[We're] really looking at probably the southeast two thirds of the state seeing some measurable snowfall, with the heaviest amounts from Des Moines southeast towards Burlington and out east towards the Quad Cites area," Cogil said. He said those areas could see about 2-3 inches of accumulation.

Sunny conditions with temperatures above freezing will help melt much of the snow on Sunday, Cogil says, but strong winds from the northwest will cause some low level drifting. He urges travelers to leave earlier and allow for more time for commuting if they are on the roads through the rest of this weekend.

According to the National Weather Service, a Winter Weather Advisory is goes into effect Saturday evening in Des Moines and lasts until 8:00 a.m. Sunday morning.

In Cedar Rapids, a Winter Weather Advisory goes into effect at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, and lasts until 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning.

Davenport and the Quad Cities area will see a Winter Weather Advisory go into effect at midnight Saturday night/Sunday morning and that lasts until noon on Sunday.