(Radio Iowa) – Snow is NOT in Iowa’s forecast — until late Wednesday and Thursday. Meteorologist Allan Curtis at the National Weather Service office in the Des Moines metro says it will be nothing like what Iowa has endured over the past few days. “Certainly not 10 inches of snow like we saw the last couple of storm,” Curtis says. The National Weather Service reports 25-and-a-half (25.5) inches of snow fell in the Quad Cities from Monday through Friday of last week. Dubuque recorded 24-point-seven inches of snow during the same period. Nearly two feet fell in Waterloo from Monday through Friday. Those are all record amounts for a five day period. Curtis says the snow that has piled up will stay a while.

“Even if we got warm — 30 or 40 degrees — we would need at least a couple of weeks of that to make a real dent in the people’s general snow pack in their yards,” Curis says. “There are areas — edges of driveways, parking lots, rural areas — that have feet of snow and it’s going to take even longer for that, so for better or worse, I hope people are prepared to see this snow stick around for a number of weeks.” Today’s (Monday’s) high will below zero. By six o’clock, when tens of thousands of Iowans will be arriving at Caucus sites around the state, wind chills will flirt with 30 below zero.

“Really, the take away there is when traveling, please be careful because if you get stuck, that’s when the wind chill and the cold really become a concern for people,” Curtis says. “Just dress appropriately. Take your time.” There is a wind chill warning in effect for Iowa until noon on Tuesday.