Northwest Iowa — Sunshine will lead to the rapid development of snow, sleet, or rain showers later Tuesday into Tuesday night.
These quick moving showers may lead to rapid, but brief drops in visibility. Also, wind gusts over 30 mph may be possible. Any snow accumulation is expected to be light, due to the fast nature of these showers. With temperatures in the 40s, any snow will melt quickly.
Even though temperatures may climb into the 40s this afternoon, we’ll have scattered snow, sleet, or rain showers moving through. These showers won’t linger long in any one area, but could produce temporary low visibility and some very minor snow accumulations. We’ll start to warm up through the end of the week, with light rain chances returning Thursday night and again potentially on Saturday.
How can it snow at 40+ degrees? In today’s case, we look at something called the Wet Bulb temperature. As precipitation falls through a much drier airmass, it will cool the air down until it saturates. This cooling effect can work thoughout the atmosphere and can result from a rapid drop of temperatures in the 40s to temperatures in the 30s as showers move through. So yes, we can forecast a high in the 40s and still have snow!
