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Severe Storms and Heavy Rain the Mississippi Valley and Midwest; Widespread Heat in the Central US

Severe thunderstorms and showers have the potential for large hail, a few strong tornadoes, damaging winds with gusts over 75 mph, and localized flash flooding across parts of the Mid/Upper Mississippi Valley and Midwest. A widespread heat wave will continue across the Central U.S. and Midwest today. Fire weather concerns persist in the Southwest into the central Rockies and northern California. Read More >

Overview

A weaker winter storm moved into the area and added more ice and snow to the snow pack received the other day. This system moved in from the south and brought along a strong pull of warm air aloft. This led to a lot more ice accumulation than was expected prior to the event. While the storm was supposed to lead to mostly snow for the northern half of our forecast area, those areas received mainly freezing rain and sleet through most of the afternoon. This led to widespread ice accumulations of 0.10-0.25". In the southwest part of our forecast area, more ice accumulation was noted, with many locations reporting around 0.25" or even more. Along with the accumulating ice, some downed tree limbs and power outages were a result.

Mid afternoon, the freezing rain began to switch to snow from a line around Iowa City, IA to Freeport, IL. A relatively strong band formed in this location and dropped around 4" of snow, especially in the Iowa City area. This band slowly progressed towards the east through the rest of the afternoon and evening, with another band setting up just east of the Mississippi, where reports around 3" were noted in the Moline area. Overall, these were relatively light snowfall accumulations, but when coupled with the ice that fell prior, it led to treacherous driving conditions throughout the area.

 

Official National Weather Service Observations

Moline: 3.7"

Davenport: 0.7"

Dubuque: 0.7"

***Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Burlington do not measure snow as part of their climate records. Please see the Snowfall Amounts and Storm Reports sections for reported snow amounts in these locations.***

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