There’s lot to talk about heading into tomorrow, so let’s get right to the weather timeline…

We have a pile of watches and warnings going into effect Wednesday for very windy conditions and for the snow and blizzard conditions as shown below. We’re also in a low level risk area for thunderstorms, as determined by the Storm Prediction Center.

So let’s break all this down. Precipitation starts in Iowa very late tonight and early Wednesday as thunderstorms. Some of these may produce hail and gusty winds as they move through.

Rain and snow slowly move east across the state, affecting the northwestern part of our viewing area during the morning commute. We may see another round of a few thunderstorms in central Iowa during the day ahead of the transition to snow, which will occur in the Des Moines and Ames area during the late afternoon on Wednesday.

Snow looks to continue until the middle of the evening, and will be blown around by winds gusting in excess of 50 mph. We may see stronger gusts than we saw during the blizzard two Wednesdays ago.

Snow totals will be heaviest along and either side of a line from Onawa to Mason City, as shown below. This will, again, be blown around by very strong winds, making travel a bad idea in affected parts of the state tomorrow. Use caution. The Des Moines metro area looks to receive less than an inch of slushy accumulation, but lows Thursday morning will be below freezing and create slippery conditions in many areas.

Looking at the 50 members of the European Ensemble model, we have a very good signal for accumulating snow tomorrow, but less so for the rest of the month.

We will likely see highs today that will be the warmest for the rest of March, so get yourself outside if you’re able for mental health purposes. We’ll still be looking at above-average temperatures Friday thru Monday. Light rain is possible late Friday and Sunday.

Your 7-day forecasts are below. Be careful out there!