(Radio Iowa) – Friday morning’s cold snap into the low 30s was a reminder for Iowans that wintery weather may not be too far away. The Iowa Department of Transportation is already gearing up for the season ahead, even though the start of winter isn’t officially until December 21st. D-O-T Winter Operations Administrator Craig Bargfrede (BARG-freed) says preparations are well underway to fight snow. “We’ve been doing a lot of maintenance on the trucks, on the equipment, making sure everything is functioning properly, making sure trucks are outfitted properly, getting blades replaced, calibrating trucks,” Bargfrede says. “We’ve been doing a number of training events.”

The agency typically brings on more than 600 temporary workers during the winter time-frame, with many of them becoming snowplow drivers. So far, only about three-dozen of those 630-plus jobs have been filled. “But that’s really kind of a function of the weather and the kind of year as well,” Bargfrede says. “A lot of the folks that apply and that we hire as seasonal employees, a lot of them are farmers, a lot of them work in construction and other areas that are still real busy this time of year.” The D-O-T has 101 maintenance garages statewide that employ more than one-thousand full-time equipment operators, mechanics and supervisors. Those garages house the agency’s 902 trucks, 42 motor graders and 32 tow plows. As far as the agency is concerned, we’re -already- in winter and it started October 15th.

DOT Snowplow cam

“That’s the date we’ve had in our policy for many years as the first date that we have to be prepared to do some kind of treatment, somewhere in the state, on the roadways,” Bargfrede says. “You may remember last year, around the 18th or 19th, we had that snow squall that came through that brought a real dose of reality to everyone.” D-O-T officials have already been meeting with officials from the National Weather Service and other agencies to get a solid feel for what icy perils may lie ahead. “What we’ve heard is that it sounds like we’re going to have a winter than could be above -normal temperatures but also above normal-precipitation,” Bargfrede says, chuckling. “Talk to us in April and see if that prediction comes to fruition.”

Salt is a valuable snow-fighting tool, both in chunks and mixed with water to form a brine solution. While salt has been in short supply in previous years, Bargfrede says Iowa has an excellent stockpile of some 240-thousand tons of salt.

Interested in a snow-fighting job with the DOT? Visit https://iowadot.gov/careers and click on the “Seasonal/Temp” tab.

Today: Areas of fog this morning; P/Cldy. High near 60. SE @ 10-15 mph.
Tonight: Cldy w/rain developing. Low around 48. E @ 10-15.
Tomorrow: Cldy w/rain. High 53. E @ 15-25 mph.
Monday: Rain ending in the morning; P/Cldy. High 56..
Tuesday: P/Cldy. High 62.

Friday’s High in Atlantic was 53. Our Low was 28. Last year on this date the High in Atlantic was 38 and the Low was 20. The Record High on this date was 81 in 1901 & 1991. The Record Low was 13 in 1895.

Today: Areas of dense fog; Partly cloudy to cloudy. High 56. SE @ 5-10.

Tonight: P/Cldy. Low 32.

Tomorrow: P/Cldy. High 60. SE @ 10-15.

Sunday: Cloudy w/rain. High 56.

Monday: Rain ending in the morning; P/Cldy. High 56.

Thursday’s High in Atlantic was 49. Our Low this morning, 28. Last year on this date, the High was 48 and the Low was 35. The Record High was 87 in 1899. The Record Low was 15, in 1976.

Today: Cloudy-to-partly cloudy & breezzy. High 56. NW @ 15-25 mph.
Tonight: P/Cldy w/patchy frost after 1am. Low around 30.
Friday: **FREEZE WARNING FROM 1-AM TO 9-AM** P/Cldy. High near 60. N @ 5 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 32.
Saturday: Areas of frost before 8am; P/Cldy. High 64.
Sunday: Showers Mostly cloudy w/showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High around 58.

Wednesday’s High in Atlantic was 64. We received .02″ rain after 7-a.m. (the 24-hour reporting cut-off). Our Low was 41. Last year on this date, the High was 44 and the Low 33. The Record High was 87 in 1947. The Record Low was 13 in 1930.

Today: Partly cloudy to Cloudy. High 63. NW @ 15-25.

Tonight: P/Cldy to cloudy. Low 41. NW @ 10-20.

Tomorrow: P/Cldy. High 58. NW @ 10-20.

Friday: P/Cldy. High 62.

Saturday: P/Cldy. High around 66.

Tuesday’s High in Atlantic was 76. Our Low was 52. We received .05″ rain overnight into early this morning. Last year on this date the High in Atlantic was 49 and the Low was 33. The Record High on this date was 87 in 1947 & 2003. The Record Low was 14 in 1960.

Today: Mostly sunny. High 78. SW @ 10-20.

Tonight: Fair-to-Partly cloudy. Low 48. SW @ 5-10.

Tuesday: P/Cldy. High again around 78. S @ 10-20.

Wednesday: Mostly cloudy w/scattered showers. High 68.

Thursday: P/Cldy. High around 66.

Sunday’s High in Atlantic was 73. Our Low was 33. Last year on this date, the High was 43 and the Low was 33. The Record High was 86 in 2003. The Record Low was 17 in 1952.

Today: Sunny, with a high near 75. Calm wind becoming southwest 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon.

Tonight: Clear, with a low around 43. South wind around 6 mph.

Monday: Sunny, with a high near 76. South wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.

Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 75. Breezy, with a south wind 10 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.

Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 64. Breezy.

Saturday’s High in Atlantic was 64. Our Low this morning, 33. Last year on this date, the High was 67 and the Low was 33. The Record High was 87 in 1947 and 2011. The Record Low was 12 in 1976.

Skyscan Forecast  Saturday, October 16, 2021  Dan Hicks

Today: Mostly sunny. W @ 10-15. High 66.

Tonight: Fair to partly cloudy. SW @ 5-10. Low 37.

Sunday: Mostly sunny. SW @ 10-15. High 72.

Sunday Night: Mostly clear. S @ 5-10. Low 43.

Monday: Mostly sunny. High 75.

Tuesday: Partly cloudy. High 77.