(Radio Iowa)- Iowans who are bundled up in their winter coats, hats and gloves today (Monday) may be back in shorts and t-shirts to wrap up their yard work by the weekend. Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff, at the National Weather Service, says we’re in for a big warmup soon, but it follows a weekend during which most Iowans saw at least some snowfall, with accumulation in several areas. “We had places that saw between two and five inches of snow over the weekend,” Hagenhoff says. “Really far northwest Iowa saw the most. Between Estherville to Okoboji saw between that four to five inch amounts, and then we had places that saw two to four surrounding that.” After a weekend of below-freezing temperatures, much of the state will only have highs in the 30s today, but Hagenhoff says that’ll quickly change.

“We’ve got one more chilly day here today, and then we definitely see a big swing starting tomorrow, mid 50s across the area,” Hagenhoff says. “By the time we get to Friday, we’re looking at mid to upper 60s, especially across central to southern Iowa.” While it likely won’t be warm enough this weekend to need the air conditioner, she says it’ll be a good bet you can turn off the furnace, at least temporarily. “Normal highs for this time of year are right around 50 to 52°, in that range for this week, so we’re going to go from about 15° below normal to 15 to 20° above normal for this time of year,” Hagenhoff says, “so a big swing here coming up after what was a really cool weekend and our first shot of winter.”

Weekend snowfall graphic from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet via the National Weather Service)

We’re still more than a month from the start of winter, which officially arrives December 21st.