Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Des Moines, IA
Issued by NWS Des Moines, IA
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677 FXUS63 KDMX 241150 AFDDMX Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Des Moines IA 550 AM CST Mon Nov 24 2025 ...Updated for the 12z Aviation Discussion... .KEY MESSAGES... - Dense Fog Advisory remains in effect for parts of northern, eastern, and southern Iowa this morning. - Gray and soggy today, with fog giving way to light rain and thickening clouds. - Much colder from around Tuesday night through the end of the week, with blustery winds Tuesday night through Wednesday. Precipitation chances return into Friday and the weekend, with a potential for accumulating snowfall but details of timing and magnitude still unclear. && .DISCUSSION... Issued at 357 AM CST Mon Nov 24 2025 Southerly flow continues to bring increasing moisture and warm air advection into Iowa early this morning, with resulting advection fog lifting northward across Iowa. This fog can be seen well on satellite imagery, surging quickly ahead of the clouds that are following it into Iowa, which has brought about widespread patchy fog across much of Iowa, and areas of locally dense fog in parts of northern, eastern, and southern Iowa. Overall, expectations remain that this fog will continue to lift northward through the morning, with dense fog expected to expand over northern, eastern and parts of southern Iowa through sunrise, with expected visibilities under a half to quarter miles in these dense fog areas. Therefore, the Dense Fog Advisory remains in effect for the aforementioned areas until about 10am, but could be extended slightly if this fog were to stick around longer, which will be dependent on the speed of rainfall arriving over the state today. Please take it slow and allow for extra time to arrive to your destination, especially during the morning commute. Otherwise, the system of interest today in terms of expected rainfall gradually arriving today is currently over western Kansas/Nebraska, which is slowly tracking east, and its deformation band seen from very light returns on radar inching into southwest Iowa so far. No rainfall is being reported at the surface yet, which makes sense given more limited moisture aloft, but the expectation is that towards sunrise, rain coverage will gradually expand north and eastward, with the highest probabilities (60-70%) by late morning to afternoon as the main moisture surge from the south becomes more widespread into Iowa. Rainfall amounts are still expected to be on the low side, with values around to less than a few tenths by the end of the day. Highs are expected to remain more mild with values in the 50s. Have continued to slowly exit the rainfall from west to east tonight given trends in CAM guidance. HREF guidance is showing a signal for another night of widespread fog, this time from lingering moisture from the fresh rainfall over Iowa, along with light winds. Therefore have added fog to the forecast tonight into Tuesday, and like yesterday, will watch trends over the next several hours to assess if another advisory is needed, which at this time seems quite possible. As this system departs into early Tuesday, a quickly moving deepening trough to the northeast is expected to interact with this first system and develop a defined low pressure system, dragging a surface cold front into Iowa through Tuesday morning from west to east before departing into the afternoon. Expectations remain generally similar to previous thinking, with additional but low chances for rain showers mainly over the eastern half of Iowa with this, followed by wrap around precipitation in the form of light snow over far northern Iowa Tuesday night into early Wednesday, producing little if any accumulation. Besides the precipitation, strong cold air advection with the elevated cold front, seen by northwesterly flow with strong winds at 850mb up to 40-45+ knots looks to lag a bit, arriving a bit later by Tuesday afternoon to evening. Though widespread stratus is expected to remain overhead, along with time of day at least somewhat limiting the better mixing of these winds down to the surface, would still expect conditions to be rather windy given the scope of this advection regime. Trends therefore continue with this current forecast cycle to increase winds a bit further Tuesday and Wednesday from the higher end guidance to reflect these expectations. Winds gradually taper off through later Wednesday and especially into Thursday as surface high pressure settles overhead with highs expected in the 30s and lows in the teens to 20s. By Friday, long term guidance indicates the next system arriving into the region that could introduce a more widespread winter weather potential, but notable differences still remain that leave more uncertainty at this time. Close monitoring will continue over the coming days as more model members capture this specific event and details become more clear. Stay tuned for updates. && .AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z TUESDAY/... Issued at 550 AM CST Mon Nov 24 2025 Widespread fog remains overhead this morning, with dense fog across the eastern terminals causing reduced visibilities below 1 statute mile and LIFR conditions. These conditions are expected to remain until about mid-morning before fog dissipates as rain arrives into the state. The highest probabilities for rain are generally expected late morning to afternoon, with periods before and after handled with PROB30 groups, which will also include low ceilings generally below MVFR/IFR. Low stratus along with fog then returns this evening into Tuesday, which will result in more significant restrictions. && .DMX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Dense Fog Advisory until 10 AM CST this morning for IAZ004>007- 015>017-023>028-035>039-047>050-061-062-074-075-083>086- 094>097. && $$ DISCUSSION...Bury AVIATION...Bury