This week's storm not easy to forecast

As meteorologists across the state watched the band of weather that's brought rain and sleet and the promise of snow move into Iowa, none were real sure what exactly would happen.

They did know, though, that it was going to be a challenging and frustrating storm to track.

The problem?

“It was the warm air at the mid-levels of the atmosphere,” said Kaj O'Mara, a meteorologist with KCRG-TV9 in Cedar Rapids. “Any time it rains in December it's going to be a problem.”

O'Mara said the question wasn't whether the storm was going to hit but rather what kind of storm it would be. Thanks to those warm air models no one was quite sure whether it would be ice or snow or rain - or some combination of the three.

The path of the storm, coming from the south and then heading west when it hit the end of the jet stream, made it even more difficult to predict. That type of movement isn't usual for winter months at all, O'Mara said.

Snow is in the forecast for much of today, O'Mara said, and the KCRG-TV9 Weather Lab is predicting totals of 1 to 4 inches in Eastern Iowa with the higher amounts to the north. If the surface temperatures start to drop below freezing before the snow starts, he said, all the rain will freeze up and the snow will come in on top of that.