(Radio Iowa) – We still have about six weeks of fall left, but today (Thursday) is Winter Weather Awareness Day in Iowa. Meteorologist Chad Hahn, at the National Weather Service, says it’s important for Iowans to be aware and prepared for whatever may be around the corner, including ice, snow and bitter cold. “It’s a good time for us to begin to transition out of what we traditionally think as our warm season hazards, thunderstorms, hail, winds, tornadoes, and some of the extreme heat that we have during the warm months, into what we know is going to be coming our way,” Hahn says. “Obviously, the cold season is already here. In certain parts of the state, we’ve already seen some snow.”

Parts of northwest and north-central Iowa got a surprise blanket of flakes on Halloween morning. The weather service announced several weeks ago that it planned to eliminate some terms in the winter ahead that Iowans have gotten used to hearing. “Listeners are probably familiar with wind chill warnings, wind chill watches and wind chill advisories. Those are all going to be sunset,” Hahn says. “They’re going away for this season, and they’re going to be replaced by the new verbiage, which is extreme cold.” The switch makes more sense, he says, as things like wind chill warnings didn’t tell the full story.  “We’ll issue extreme cold warnings, extreme cold watches and cold weather advisories,” Hahn says, “and the main reason that we did that is really to emphasize that cold is cold, whether it is associated with wind or not.”

Radio Iowa file photo

The long-range forecast shows above-normal temperatures in Iowa for the next few weeks, also with above-normal rainfall likely, but no snow indicated. The first day of winter is December 21st.