IEM Daily Bulletin for Jan 26 2026

[daryl herzmann]

Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 26 January 2026

News

No news is good news

IEM Code Pushes <repo,branch> on Github

Timestamp	Repository	Message	Link
Jan 25 9:54 PM	iem,main	📝 Sundry updates per log review	Link
Jan 25 9:54 PM	iem,main	⬆️ Update precommits	Link

Daily Feature

'25-'26 Winter Storm #13
Date: 25 Jan 10:15 AM
Votes: Good: 8   Bad: 0 Abstain: 0

A major and ongoing winter storm just clipped far southern Iowa with measurable snowfall on Saturday and into Sunday. The featured map shows totals over two inches confined to the southeastern tip of Iowa. Much of the rest of the state picked up a dusting, but below the lowest measurable value of 0.1 inches. This storm is causing major issues over the south and northeastern US with plenty of snow, ice, and cold temperatures. The most significant impact so far is tens of thousands of flight cancellations so far. Such major winter storms over the southern US need a robust supply of cold air to overcome various processes that work against snow and ice over that region. Such is the case with Iowa stuck with another very cold day and ugly wind chill temperatures expected into Monday morning.

NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 12 AM 25 Jan 2026 - 12 AM 26 Jan 2026 CST

	Summary		By WFO					Watches
Type	US	IA	ARX	DVN	DMX	OAX	FSD	US
Tornado	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Svr Tstorm	22	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Flash Flood	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	---

ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD

IEM Cow Report

SVR+TOR Warnings Issued:  31 Verified:  11 [35.5%]
Polygon Size Versus County Size            [38.5%]
Average Perimeter Ratio                    [21.6%]
Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km)  [18.2%]
Average Storm Based Warning Size           [2625 sq km]
Probability of Detection(higher is better) [0.81]
False Alarm Ratio (lower is better)        [0.65]
Critical Success Index (higher is better)  [0.33]