Now that's what we call winter

After waking up to 8 inches of snow in Le Mars, Justin Dykhuizen, 15, and Blake Ngo, 12, celebrated a day off from school by shoveling out a driveway. They didn't mind the cold too much, though, because they had hot cocoa and doughnuts waiting inside the house. [Click to enlarge]

Blowing it.

Plowing through it.

Getting stuck in it.

About 8 inches of the heavy, wet snow greeted Le Mars area residents Friday morning.

But a temperature at 8 a.m. of 14 above zero with a windchill of 2 above made for a relatively warm start as residents began burrowing their way out.

On Central Avenue entire families clothed in stocking hats, winter coats and gloves threw shovels of snow out of driveways, others used sheer force to push snowblowers or vehicles stuck in the snow.

Thursday night's heavy snowfall closed area schools and cancelled other activities in Plymouth County.

In other northwest Iowa areas, up to 10 or 11 inches of snow fell overnight around Sheldon, Sioux City and Spirit Lake.

Mike Gillispie, meteorologist with the Sioux Falls National Weather Service, said more snow is expected Saturday for the Le Mars area, but it won't be much maybe 1 to 1 1/2 inches.

"Most of the snow will be falling during the day, and then the wind will pick up late afternoon and through the day Sunday," Gillispie said. "The main thing is going to be the winds Saturday, cranking up out of the northwest 25 to 35 miles per hour gusting around 40."

Those northwest winds will mean a quick drop off in temperature.

"It will be 10 to 15 above through tomorrow morning, dropping off quickly tomorrow night to close to 0 and around 10 below Saturday night," Gillispie said. "It's not going to warm up a lot more for Sunday."

Actual temperatures will be 0 to 5 below zero Sunday with windchill temperatures 25 to 35 below, Gillispie said.

"It's another big blast of a lot cold wind coming in," Gillispie said. "There's going to be a lot of blowing snow."

People are encouraged to stay home during the blustery, freezing, blowing conditions.

"If you have to travel, get it done by Saturday morning," Gillispie said. "By Saturday afternoon conditions are going to start deteriorating rapidly. The strongest winds will be Saturday evening through Sunday morning."

But by Sunday evening, the snowfall and winds are expected to stop, which means Monday's commute to work and school will be much improved with 5 to 10 mph winds with a high of 0 to 3 below zero around the Le Mars area.

"Once we get past the weekend here it does not get terribly bad," Gillispie said.

That means you shouldn't have to cancel your Christmas travel plans next week even though Monday night and Tuesday could bring a little more light snow to the area.

Christmas Day winds are going to range between 5 to 15 mph with temperatures up to the teens, Gillispie said.

"By Tuesday night through Thursday night, we're not looking at any kind of weather around the area," Gillispie said. "As we get into Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, there should be no problems as far as travel goes."