Drake University - Public Safety

⚠️🌩️ Weather Update 🌪️⚠️
Both today and Friday continue to carry the highest level of uncertainty for severe weather. Compared to this time yesterday, today now shows an increased potential for tornado activity. Everyone is encouraged to remain weather aware and be prepared to take action if a Tornado Warning is issued or if hail becomes damaging.
We’ll share updates as conditions change. Please stay safe.
🌧️🌪️

SEVERE WEATHER POTENTIAL LATE THURSDAY/FRIDAY AM & AFTERNOON/EVENING
Th weather services are still tracking the potential for severe weather early Friday morning (2-3am til 8-9am) and Friday afternoon/evening. Though severe weather look possible, what type and how it evolves is much more uncertain.
LATE THURSDAY INTO FRIDAY
Our first round of storms will fire around 2-3am Friday in western portions of the state. Storms will largely be elevated carrying mainly a large hail threat, though occasional strong winds cannot be ruled out. Storms will push eastward through the morning moving into the metro between 4-6am and to Cedar Rapids/Iowa City around 7am. Rain and clouds will linger behind this initial line into the morning and possibly into the afternoon. How long these rain and clouds linger and what breaks we see in the clouds will have a large impact on what we see Friday afternoon and evening.
FRIDAY AFTERNOON/EVENING
There is much uncertainty with how these storms will evolve. We'll have a decent cap in place, and with rain and clouds possibly lingering it puts into question how much we'll be able to warm. If we do see breaks in the clouds and can get some sunshine by early afternoon that could be enough to push our temperatures into the low 70s and give us a higher potential for strong to severe storms, with higher potential for storms to fire ahead of the front. If clouds and rain linger and keep us in the mid to upper 60s, that would greatly lessen the instability and the strength of the storms we do see fire. With that said we may still see strong storms, but the intensity may be less.
Our main threats at this point look like large hail and damaging winds and possibly a spin-up tornado within the line of storms as it moves through Friday evening (7-10pm). Forecast hodographs which track the change in wind speed and direction with height don't necessarily look ideal for tornadic formation, but these are based off of models (they can also be produced from observed conditions from balloon launches) and slight variations within these models can have significant changes in what we see for threats. Again, there is quite a bit of uncertainty at this point but these are some of the things our team is keeping an eye on as we get closer.

...OUTDATED POST...

Accumulating snowfall will spread across much of Iowa from this afternoon and evening into tonight. A narrow band of heavier snow is expected, but the exact location of the band is still not certain. Stay tuned to the latest forecast updates today, as snowfall amounts will vary near the band!