The calendar may say Spring but the forecast says it’s still very much Winter. A wide section of northeastern Iowa is under either a Winter Storm Watch or Warning as a fast-moving storm system is expected to dump heavy snow on the region starting late tonight and running through much of tomorrow.
Meteorologist Andy Ervin, at the Quad Cities National Weather Service office, says: “This time of year, there’s a little bit more moisture available for a storm system and this one could produce easily greater than six inches of snow, especially north of Highway 20. Some spots may be up to ten inches.”
Ervin says it may seem outlandish to be predicting a massive snowstorm on the first day of Spring, but it’s not that far out of line: “To have shovelable snow this time of year is probably always going to raise a few eyebrows but statistically, this is not that unusual. March and even early April is known for springtime snowstorms. This is just one of ’em. We’ve lucked out recently and haven’t had that much to shovel in the region. You can look around here and — it still looks like winter in northeast Iowa. Those folks still have snow on the ground this morning.”
While winter may officially be over, this winter weather will still count toward the snowfall total, which may reach an all-time high. Ervin says Dubuque, which still has snow on the ground, has gotten more than 71-inches of snow over this winter. That’s about four inches from the record and with up to ten inches in the forecast, this could end up being Dubuque’s snowiest winter ever.
For more details on the forecast, visit “www.weather.gov”.