What's up with Iowa's winter? Wild swing in temperatures continues, with record highs forecast

Des Moines Register
·2 min read
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Des Moines residents Laurie and Ward Phillips take a stroll acrossa bridge at Gray's Lake Park in Des Moines. The streak of warm weather that set in at the end of January could climax Thursday with record highs for the day.
Des Moines residents Laurie and Ward Phillips take a stroll acrossa bridge at Gray's Lake Park in Des Moines. The streak of warm weather that set in at the end of January could climax Thursday with record highs for the day.

Is this one of the weirdest winters ever in central Iowa?

In a dramatic contrast to last month, when Des Moines registered lows of -17 on Jan. 14 and 15, records for the date, it's expected to see a high of 62 degrees on Thursday, breaking a record of 60 for the date set in 1999, the National Weather Service says in forecast guidance. Record keeping for Feb. 8 dates back to 1878.

Record highs also are forecast in Mason City, where a high of 56 would exceed a 1999 record by 5 degrees; Ottumwa, where the forecast of 64 would break a record of 62 set in 1938; and Waterloo, where the expected 60-degree high would beat the record of 55 set in 1999. Waterloo also is expected to set a daily record Wednesday with a high of 56, 4 degrees above the mark set in 1987.

Lamoni is expected to match its 1938 record of 64 degrees on Thursday.

Record high lows also forecast

The weather service also is forecasting record high minimum temperatures on Wednesday in Mason City (34 degrees, 2 degrees above the 1925 mark), and Waterloo, with 36 degrees, up from 33 in 1996. On Thursday, Des Moines and Ottumwa are expected to join them in setting records for the day, ranging from 1 to 6 degrees above the previous high minimums,

Heavy winds in forecast, and perhaps some rain

Propelling the warm air Wednesday are south winds gusting up to 25 mph in Des Moines, the weather service said. The wind is expected to grow even stronger on Thursday, with gusts up to 34 mph. There's also a 20% chance of rain beginning about 1 a.m. that day ― perhaps washing away some of the remaining 27.2 inches of snow from January, the second most on record after the 37 inches of 1886.

Will winter come back?

Temperatures are forecast to drop beginning Friday, when the high will be about 50 and the low will be close to 30, and descend into the 40s, with lows in the 20s, through Tuesday ― still above average, though not as jaw-droppingly.

Will there be snow in February, usually Iowa's snowiest month? With the wild swings in weather so far this year, it's hard to count it out.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Thursday expected to bring record highs, record high lows across Iowa