DES MOINES, Iowa -- This week-long stretch of extremely cold weather will be Iowa's longest in 25 years.
"The duration of this cold event is something we haven't seen, really, since about 1996. That's the last time there was such a long-duration cold event like this," says National Weather Service Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff.
She says this cold snap is blanketing the entire Midwest--from Nebraska to Illinois, and North Dakota to Missouri and Kansas.
Hagenhoff says even colder weather is possible by the weekend.
"There's some early indications that even this coming weekend--the 13th and 14th--we could get another cold front to come through that could knock down temperatures even more," she says.
Hagenhoff also says there are chances for light snow early Monday morning, on Wednesday, and again by the end of the week.
"We're also monitoring the chances for a system kind of late week--maybe in the Thursday and Friday time range and into the weekend," she says.
Hagenhoff says it's too early to know exactly when that late-week snow will come into Iowa, and how much will fall.
Image from the National Weather Service--Johnston, IA