January Snow & Drought Update

January has been a roller coaster ride of weather, both with precipitation and with temperatures.  Believe it or not, we are running just under 7" above average in snowfall for the month.  The airport in Moline has received 11.4" of snow, which is 6.7" above the average of 4.6" (through January 16th).  The greatest amounts came from January 4th & 5th, when collectively 7.8" of snow was measured at the airport in Moline, while other parts of the city saw just over 3", and the Davenport airport saw just over an inch!
We rang in the new year with 3.2" of snow and 0.2" fell on the 9th and the 14th.  Thursday's snow should only measure up to a half inch or less in most areas.

Let's switch gears now and talk about the drought.  While we aren't nearly as dry as we were over the summer, parts of the area are still suffering from the drought, especially on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River.  Here's the latest from the United States Drought Monitor:

In Illinois: 49.84% of the state is not seeing drought conditions, while 28.02% are classified as Abnormally Dry, 20.03% in Moderate Drought and 2.11% in Severe Drought.

Things are just a little worse in Iowa.  Just 23.40% are free of drought conditions, while 24.04% are Abnormally Dry, 32.86% have Moderate Drought and 19.70 are classified as Severe Drought, which includes parts of Clinton, Cedar, Johnson and Jefferson counties in the CBS4 viewing area.

Looking ahead, temperatures look cold but as it looks now there won't be much snow or any other precipitation to improve current conditions.