Light snow for Wednesday

The snow for yesterday's low pressure system is still lingering in the QC.  The light snow will fall through the day and into the early evening hours.  We can see about an extra inch of snow accumulating by the end of the day today.  The clouds will stick around through Thursday with minimal chances for flurries.  Then the skies begin to clear for a chilly weekend with highs only near 30°.

Winter Storm Warning Canceled

Good news for a change from the weather center here at CBS4 - the Winter Storm Warning has been canceled early and we're looking at mainly light snow through Wednesday afternoon.  We'll see off and on snow showers with an additional inch of accumulation!  Here are some of the totals from some of our Illinois towns so far, with the next official report from Moline due in at midnight.

And here's a link to a preliminary report from the NWS Tuesday evening.

Click Here

Storm Winding Down - SNOW TOTALS

Well it wasn't the biggest snowstorm of the season, but some places definitely picked up a healthy dose of snow!  In the QC the official totals are Moline with 2.8" and Davenport with 3.2".  Some places ended up with half a foot of snow, including Iowa City, Burlington and Fairfield.  In Illinois Macomb topped out at 5.0".  Here's a map from the NWS with totals as of 9am

And a link here to the NWS summary page of our winter storm! 

Click Here

The Fun of Forecasting Snow

UPDATED SNOW TOTALS - The official totals for the Quad cities are:  Moline - 2.8" and Davenport -3.2"

Previous post -

Tonight's storm has been showing up consistently for some time now in the forecast models...and they've been consistently suggesting about 4-8 inches of snow...and while the storm would be fading as it closed in on the QC things still looked pretty safe for 4-6" of snow.  The NWS sends out the Winter Storm Watch days in advance, then upgrades to a Winter Weather Advisory/Winter Storm Warning a day before and everything's all good, right?  Then the day of the storm arrives and things look good on the radar and the snow's piling up, as expected in the Plains...

Then, dry air creeps into the storm from the South, winds out of the East eat away at some of the first flakes to fall...and all of a sudden what looked like a sure thing now looks questionable!  The first wave of snow is about to roll into the Quad Cities and this will go a long ways in determining how much snow we pick up tonight.  This first wave needs to drop at least 2 inches or so if we're going to meet the 4-6" forecast, otherwise totals will be a meager 2-4" and that won't be fun, at all!

Snow On the Way! (Winter Weather Advisory)

After a meager snow season so far we'll certaily add to our snow totals Thursday night and early Friday in the Quad Cities!  The storm that's set to affect the Quad Cities has been showing up consistently in the weather models for the last week or so!  Now that the storm is getting closer it's nice to see most models converging on a solution that means 4-6" for the Quad Cities. 

And here's the official forecast from Ten at 10 on Wednesday night!

Cooler Temperatures For Tuesday

Forecasted temperatures starting at 5 PM CST on Monday Feb. 18th

After a warm Monday we will see a large drop in temperatures for Tuesday.  A cold front approaches this evening and will provide our area with chances for light rain.  The back side of the cold front will also bring some gusty winds and chilly temperatures.  High temperatures will drop into the low 20s Tuesday with a brisk NW wind at 15-25+ mph, making wind chills very cold.  The cool air sticks around through a majority of the week and we have chances for more snow on Thursday and Friday. 

Adding Daylight Every Day!

Our days are getting longer and longer now as we get deeper into the month of February!  Technically the days started getting longer back in December, right after the winter solstice.  Back then it was hardly noticeable but now we're adding minutes of daylight each day!  This trend continues until late June when the summer solstice arrives, marking the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

Day      Sunrise       Sunset
Mon      7:02           5:31
Tue       7:01           5:32
Wed      6:59           5:34

NASA Breaks World Record!

Back on March 1st, 1984, NASA launched Landsat 5 as a backup of Landsat 4.  The satellites were identical and were put in place to capture photos of Earth, but after almost 30 years later, Landsat 5 has broken a record.

Guinness World Records confirmed that Landsat 5 holds the record for "Longest operating Earth observation satellite" with 28 years and 10 months of active use.  The satellite had its share of issues throughout it's life, with 20 technical faults and it even lost the ability to store data on-board.  Through these issues Landsat 5 still transmitted useable data for almost 30 years. 

Landsat 5 was decommissioned on December 21st, 2012, 2 of the three gyroscopes stopped working and when the backup failed too, NASA pulled the plug.  Landsat 5 made 150,000 orbits, and transmitted 2.5 million pictures back to Earth.  It even outlived its replacement Landsat 6, now NASA relies on Landsat 7 for its Earth imagery. 

How Windy Was It?

Now that the winds are finally fading we can take stock on just how windy it was across the area from Sunday afternoon through Monday afternoon!  Basically the entire area was under a WIND ADVISORY for almost 24 hours!  Look at some of the top gusts!

Here's a link to a more complete list comiled by the local NWS office Click Here

Not Quite as Windy Tonight

Even though it's still pretty windy outside the WIND ADV just expired for the Quad Cities at 3pm.  Tonight will be breezy, but instead of winds at 30-35 mph with gusts to 50 mph we're looking at winds between 10-20 mph with gusts to 30 mph!  One thing that will be nice this week - sunshine highlights the forecast through Wednesday!

3pm Winds

Here's a Special Weather Statement just issued by the local NWS:

WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 35 MPH WILL BE SEEN ACROSS THE
AREA THROUGH LATE AFTERNOON. THE WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO SLOWLY
DIMINISH THE REMAINDER OF THE AFTERNOON WITH A LARGER DECREASE IN
WINDS WITH SUNSET.

A Rainy, Warm February Sunday in the QC!

Our official in the Quad Cities on Sunday was 50°!  While it was warm, it didn't even come close to breaking our record high of 62° that was set back in 1976.   Burlington and Fairfield were even warmer.  Both neighborhoods climbed into the mid 50s!  

Rainfall amounts varied from place to place.  The Quad Cities picked up 0.30" of rain.  While Fairfield picked up an inch and Muscatine just fell shy of an inch.

2-3 FEET of Snow in the Northeast!

Worcester, MA

Long Island, NY

Auburn, MA

A viewer, who has family and friends in the Northeast, sent us these pictures over the weekend of the snowstorm. @ least we are just dealing with rain on Sunday!!!

Record Rain in the Quad Cities

Our steady, light to moderate rain has really added up over the last several hours...and we've broken the record for rain on February 7th in the Quad Cities!  As of 6pm our total is up to 0.75" which is almost 0.20" more than the previous record. 

Friday and Saturday look nicer, with plenty of sunshine and above average highs.  Another chance for rain rolls in Sunday...

Light Rain Falling This Morning

A weak low pressure system is moving through the Midwest and it's giving us some light rain.  The rain began late on Wednesday and is forecasted to linger into the early afternoon hours.  We can expect between a quarter and a half of an inch of total rain. The rain is much needed as river levels are down plus the ground is lacking moisture for the spring season.  The clouds will stick around through the overnight hours and finally begin to clear by early Friday morning. 

Quiet Week of Weather

After some recent snow, winds and cold temps our relatively quiet weather over the next few days will suit most people just fine I imagine!  Temperatures will be a little above normal, with highs in the middle 30s for most of the week...and while there's a slim chance for flurries on Tuesday, and a light mix of rain/snow coming Thursday there are no big snowstorms in the immediate QC future!  Proof of that here on a snow forecast from several models...

Andy