Cold start to weekend; warming into next week

Polar air has made its way into the region and will only have a brief stay through the first half of the weekend.

A storm system will stay to our south on Friday producing light snow across central, eastern and southern Iowa. Our local area will see just some clouds from that system with an at times partly sunny sky. It’ll be a cold day with high temperatures ranging from the upper teens to mid 20s from north to south. A brisk northwest wind will make it feel colder with wind chills (feels-like) in the single digits throughout the day.

The clouds will clear a bit tonight into Saturday with the brunt of the cold air ahead as temperatures drop into the single digits to lower teens. A blustery wind will lead to wind chills in the zero to five-below range.

Temperatures will moderate a bit on Saturday with highs getting back to near 30° under a mostly sunny sky. However, the wind will increase with gusts near 35 mph at times which will lead to wind chills likely in the teens throughout the day.

Sunday will be a bit better with sunshine and high temperatures in the mid-30s.

The polar air retreats to start next week as high temperatures get back into the 40s from Monday through the middle of the week with some areas possibly into the 50s on Wednesday. Temperatures dial back a bit the rest of the week with highs in the 30s and 40s which is still well above average.