Northwest Iowa — The area’s first taste of winter weather for the season saw icy roads, light snowfall and howling winds.
The winter storm was a factor in several traffic accidents around the area Thursday night into Friday morning, and even caused some schools to start classes late Friday morning.
Snowfall amounts around northwest Iowa were fairly light, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Jim Murphy in Sioux Falls.
Here in northwest Iowa, we saw .25-inches of snow in Sheldon, .10-inches in Rock Rapids, .5-inches in George and .3-inch in Spencer. The highest snowfall amount we found in northwest Iowa was at Spirit Lake, where they tell us they received an inch of snow.
Complicating things for those getting out and about Friday morning was the fact that rain had fallen prior to the start of the snow fall, which left sidewalks, streets and highways ice-covered and quite slippery. Visibility was also a concern at some places, where the falling snow that was being propelled by nearly 50-mile-per-hour winds served to make travel a challenge.
Murphy says the high winds should die down sometime Saturday morning, but he says there’s another storm system coming in on the heels of this last one.
Higher velocity winds are forecast to return Saturday night, with gusts reaching near 40-miles-per-hour. But things will begin to improve after that, with temperatures even forecast to rebound into the low 60’s by Tuesday.
