SATURDAY MORNING UPDATE – The National Weather Service has now made it a Winter Storm WARNING for the Quad Cities on Sunday. That means confidence is high on a widespread, high impact winter weather event on Sunday. Snow totals and wind forecasts are still on track with our Saturday night forecast, which calls for most of the Quad Cities area to receive 4 to 7 inches of snow. Warnings are issued generally when the storm is set to begin within 24 hours and confidence is high. That’s why we’ve gone from a watch to a warning over the last 12 hours.
Previous Post – As we get closer to Sunday, the weather is looking worse and worse.
The National Weather Service has now issued a Winter Storm Watch for the Quad Cities for Sunday morning through Sunday night.
Snow totals will be in the range of 4-7″ for a lot of us and there could be a few isolated totals near 9 or 10 inches.
A lot of forecast models are calling for anywhere from 4 to close to 9 inches of snow. That backs up our forecast of a widespread 4-7 inches.
It won’t only be snow that causes trouble on Sunday. Winds will be gusting up to 35 mph and we could see blowing snow and near-blizzard conditions Sunday afternoon. At first the snow will be a heavy, wet snow. Then, as temperatures get colder in the afternoon, the snow will dry out and we’ll see more blowing snow.
For a storm to be considered a blizzard you need:
35 mph winds
Visibility of a quarter mile or less
Lasting 3 hours
Our winds should gust up to 35 mph but we won’t see a sustained wind at that level.
