Unusual winter season in northeast Iowa

If you think it seems like this winter has been a little colder, with less snow than normal, you’re absolutely right.
The weather system that moved through this area Thursday and Friday and dumped some snow has been a break in the trend.
It looks like a chilly weekend ahead, with overnight lows below zero and daytime highs in the teens. There is a 40 percent chance of snow during the day on Saturday.
Looking ahead to next week, highs will be in the mid-to-upper 20s on Monday and Tuesday, with a slight chance of snow.
Tom Stangeland, hydro-meteorological technician with the National Weather Service’s La Crosse location, said that he doesn’t expect the trend toward cold and dry weather to change much between now and spring, despite the snowfall late this week and the system moving through this weekend.
‘’We are expecting about five inches of snowfall between Thursday and Friday this week,” Stangeland said. “And there is another system coming through this weekend, but it probably won’t effect your area all that much. It’s going to hit Iowa, but it will mainly hit further south of the New Hampton and Charles City areas.”
According to Stangeland, normal snowfall for the New Hampton area to this point in the winter season is over 24 inches. To date, New Hampton has received less than half of that — 11.1 inches. Normal daily temperature from the start of the year to this point is about 19 degrees. The average daily temperature in New Hampton so far this year has been a chilly 10 degrees.

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“We’ve been in a northwest flow,” he said. “There’s a high pressure ridge on the west coast, and it’s not allowing much moisture in. Without moisture supplies, any system that gets through is relatively dry. I would expect that to stay the same, probably through the end of this month.”
 
For more of this article, see Friday's Tribune.