Rain is in the forecast for parts of Iowa tonight, though central Iowa won’t see a lot of it. Wednesday looks mostly dry, but then the precipitation looks to start again Wednesday evening, with rain continuing into Thursday and lingering as light showers into Friday morning. Totals don’t look as heavy as they did on Monday, as seen below:

Behind the rain, colder air will start to spill into Iowa on Friday afternoon. The coldest air of the season will push into the state this weekend, as another chance of precipitation starts late Saturday. Enough of that cold air may move in to change showers over to a mix with snow by Sunday morning.

Rain mixed with snow, or just plain old snow, may continue into Sunday afternoon.

The first snowflakes of the season are always cause for excitement (or maybe depression). However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. One is that the forecast between now and Sunday is very likely to change. Second, soil temperatures in Iowa are still warm at this point in the season:

As such, any snowflakes that do fall will have a short lifespan in solid phase. The cold air doesn’t look to stick around temporarily, though, as the Climate Prediction Center’s 6-10-day outlook shows:

A hard freeze is likely by Sunday night. Stay tuned to WHO13 this week for updates.