Low pressure will organize over Colorado today and move onto the Plains tonight and Tuesday. It will advance east through Missouri Wednesday and into the lower Great Lake Thursday night. Thunderstorms will develop tonight and continue intermittently through Tuesday night.Isolated severe storms are possible from Interstate 80 south. As the low passes to the east of Iowa, colder air will be drawn south into the region. The rain will gradually change to snow from the northwest. Accumulating snow will be restricted to far northwest Iowa and areas northwest with heavy snow possible. Moderate to heavy rainfall amounts over the next few days could result in ponding on roads and ditches Tuesday and Wednesday.

Leaders of the U-S Army Corps of Engineers will hold public meetings this week to cover water management plans for the Missouri River basin this spring and beyond. Jody Farhat, head of the Water Management Division for the Corps in Omaha, says it’s a chance to continue the dialogue with the public over how the river is being run during the drought. “The purpose of the April meetings is to let stakeholders in the basin know about the current hydrologic conditions, what the soil moisture and the snow pack looks like,” Farhat says, “and what we expect to do with regard to our operation of the reservoir system through the remainder of this calendar year.”

Farhat says they continue to see river reservoirs slowly dropping. So far, they’re down about eight-and-a-half million acre feet, or around 22-percent of the total storage available. “We are implementing drought conservation measures,” Farhat says. “We had low winter releases as a measure to conserve water and as we start the navigation season here in April, we’re providing what we call minimum service flows for navigation.”

Farhat says the Corps is in position to continue “near normal” operations for quite a while, several years, in fact. “Storage in the reservoirs is designed to serve the authorized purposes during a 12-year drought like that of the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s and early 1940s,” Farhat says. “As we get deeper and deeper into the drought, we conserve more and more water by providing reduced service to navigation and other uses.”

The region is just entering the second year of drought and she says, given the 12-year drought plan, they should be “good for another decade.” The meetings are being held this week in: Nebraska City, Nebraska; Fort Peck, Montana; Bismarck, North Dakota; Pierre, South Dakota and Smithville, Missouri.

(Radio Iowa)

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA 504 AM CDT MON APR 8 2013
COUNTIES: AUDUBON-GUTHRIE-CASS-ADAIR-MADISON-ADAMS-UNION-TAYLOR-RINGGOLD

AS SKIES CLEAR AND WINDS BECOME CALM EARLY THIS MORNING AREAS OF
DENSE FOG WILL DEVELOP…REDUCING VISIBILITY TO BELOW A QUARTER OF
A MILE AT TIMES. ANYONE ON THE ROADS SHOULD BE ALERT FOR RAPIDLY
CHANGING VISIBILITY.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department reports the arrest early this (Monday) morning, of a Villisca man. 53-year old Kenneth Charles Richards was arrested on a charge of Child Endangerment, after deputies responded at around 12:20-a.m. to an incident in the 100 block of West 2nd Street, in Villisca.

Richards was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $5,000 bond.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A new study says the death rates in small rural hospitals are worse than at most hospitals. The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association notes that the death rate in remote hospitals got worse between 2002 and 2010. The death rate at other hospitals improved over that same time period. Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas and Kansas are the states with the most critical-access hospitals.

Nebraska has 65 of the smaller, rural hospitals that qualify for special treatment from Medicare because they provide critical access to care. The study’s lead author, Doctor Karen Joynt, says it may be harder for rural hospitals to afford the latest technology and advancements that are helping other hospitals.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

Firefighters from three Montgomery County area departments battled two separate field fires Sunday afternoon. According to Emergency Management Director Brian Hamman, the Villisca Fire Dept.  fought the first blaze shortly after 1:50-p.m., at 170th and W Avenue. They were able to contain the flames in a short time. The second field fire happened not long after the first, near 130th and M Avenue. Elliott and Red Oak fire fighting crews were on scene for roughly 2-to 3 hours.

130th & M fire (Brian Hamman photo)

170th and W Avenue fire (Brian Hamman photo)

Fire near 130th & M in Montgomery County (Brian Hamman photo)

170th & W Avenue fire (Brian Hamman photo)

Firefighters from Atlantic and Cumberland were busy Sunday afternoon, fighting two separate fires fanned by the wind.

Atlantic Fire Fighters work to contain a brush fire Sunday afternoon. (Photo courtesy Tim Cappel via Atlantic Fire & Rescue’s Facebook page)

The Atlantic Fire Department responded to a brush fire just after 1-p.m. Sunday, near 65597 Troublesome Creek Road (Just east of Highway 71). The fire reportedly started as a controlled burn that got out of control. And, the Cumberland Fire Department fought a grass fire at around 12:30-p.m., near 690th and Memphis Road. No injuries were reported.

And, at around 6:30-p.m., Sunday, firefighters from Massena were called to the scene of a grass fire one-mile east of Highway 148, on Yankton Road.

The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest Sunday afternoon of 82-year old Lois Marilyn Nelson, of Red Oak. Nelson was taken into custody on a charge of Theft in the 5th Degree. She was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and later released on $300 bond.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a joint investigation between the sheriff’s office and Red Oak Police has resulted in the arrest of a Red Oak woman on burglary charges. 32-year old Holly Ann Kelly faces three counts of burglary in the third degree, following the execution of a search warrant at a residence in the 300 block of west 1st Avenue, in Red Oak. She also faces Red Oak P-D Serious Misdemeanor charges that include Possession of Stolen Property and Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana.

Kelly was arrested Saturday evening brought to the Montgomery County Jail, where she was being held on $5,000 bond.