Bitter cold to persist following major snow storms

OSKALOOSA — Up to two feet of snow fell last week across central Iowa as an arctic front came in bringing dangerous wind chills to the area.

Monday’s Iowa Caucuses are expected to be the coldest on record, and forecasters believe that cold will hang around at least another week. Wednesday is expected to briefly get warming, but will be followed with another arctic front that will keep the cold temperatures around at least through next week, forecasters with the National Weather Service in Des Moines said.

This week’s forecast shows highs largely in the single digits, apart from highs of 19 degrees on Wednesday and 13 degrees on Thursday. Wind chills will plummet as low as -32 degrees on Tuesday and -30 degrees on Saturday before beginning to lift, the National Weather Service says. Winds will gust above 20 mph through Friday.

A round of back-to-back snowstorms dropped significant snow as roadway impacts continued through Monday. According to data collected by the Iowa State University Iowa Environmental Mesonet, much of eastern Iowa including Oskaloosa and Pella received between 8-12 inches of snow in the first event that ended Wednesday. The second event that ended Saturday delivered between 8-12 inches of snow in Oskaloosa and 6-8 inches in Pella.

The highest totals for the state targeted the Cedar Rapids and Davenport areas.

As of Monday, the snow was about 17 inches deep in Oskaloosa, which according to unofficial data from the National Weather Service is the deepest snow at one time since Jan. 2, 1984. The local records from the weather service show the record for snow depth is 30 inches (not counting drifts), set back in February 1936 as part of one of the nastiest winters on record.