Blizzard warning issued for Iowa in home stretch of caucus campaigning

As GOP candidates make a final push in Iowa ahead of next week’s caucuses, extreme winter weather continues to stomp on their plans.

The National Weather Service’s Des Moines office on Thursday issued a blizzard warning and forecasted a winter storm of a magnitude seen only once or twice a decade. The storm is expected to begin Thursday night and continue into Friday, with 6 to 10 inches of snowfall and increased wind starting Friday morning.

“Travel is not recommended except if absolutely necessary, especially by Friday afternoon into the evening,” read the advisory, which predicted that travel would become extremely difficult by Friday and even impossible in more rural areas.

Following the storm, bitter cold is expected to envelop the state. The Weather Service cautioned Thursday that once the temperature drops below zero during the day on Saturday, it won’t climb above that mark until Tuesday, the day after the caucuses. Wind chills — a figure that combines the air temperature with the wind speed to approximate how cold it feels — could plunge as low as minus-45.

The leading candidates — Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy — all announced a full roster of campaign events for the weekend, even after another snowstorm earlier this week already caused them headaches.

On Monday, Haley’s campaign canceled an event in Sioux City due to the weather. The Trump campaign canceled an event with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and his daughter, current Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, due to issues flying them into Iowa.

After mocking Haley for canceling her event, Ramaswamy posted on social media Tuesday when his car got stuck in a ditch on his way back to Des Moines: “5 of us tried to push SUV out, finally got it done with extra help from a good Iowan,” he wrote.

A spokesperson for Ramaswamy’s campaign told POLITICO that the campaign would hold its Friday events as planned if possible, albeit without its bus or plane, which will be grounded by the weather.

Trump, DeSantis and Haley’s campaigns did not immediately respond to questions about how the storm will affect their schedules.