Thursday morning, residents of central Iowa along the Interstate 80 corridor may have received an alert for a snow squall warning, and wondered what that is.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff says that a snow squall is a very specific kind of weather pattern, which is a narrow band of snow that moves rapidly through an area. She explains that this can turn visibility conditions from normal to white out in a short amount of time, and cause a quick accumulation of snow on roadways. Hagenhoff tells Raccoon Valley Radio how drivers can try to stay safe if a snow squall is coming through their area.

“The most important thing is if you’re already on the roads to slow down and just take it easy on the roads, use extreme caution if you’re out. If you haven’t left yet but you’re planning on leaving soon, the best thing you can do is delay your travel until after the snow squall has passed. These usually move really quickly so it doesn’t take too long and simply delaying travel and avoiding the roadways is the way to keep yourself the safest.”

Hagenhoff mentions that luckily, snow squalls are fairly uncommon in Iowa, with the last one being seen at this time last year. She adds that just because they don’t happen often though, that doesn’t mean that they can’t cause issues when they do occur.