Weather Forecast
KCRG TV9 First Alert Forecast For Dubuque and the Tri-States
KCRG TV9 FIRST ALERT FORECAST FOR MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2019
TODAY: PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGH 22. NORTHWEST WIND 5-15 MPH.
TONIGHT: PARTLY CLOUDY. LOW 0.
TOMORROW: PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGH 21.
EXTENDED OUTLOOK WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY:
SNOW LIKELY WEDNESDAY (3-6”), DRY THURSDAY AND FRIDAY. HIGH’S IN THE 20’S & 30’’S. LOW’S IN THE SINGLE DIGITS AND TEEN’S
MISSISSIPPI RIVER STAGE AT DUBUQUE: 9.7-FEET & STEADY
KCRG Weather Blog
Snow moves in late Saturday night, continues Sunday
More snow is on the way this weekend. TIMING: We expect snow to start late Saturday night, primarily after 10pm. This snow will last the entire day Sunday and wrap up sometime Sunday evening for the most part. Lingering flurries may still fly into Monday morning. AMOUNTS: A widespread 3-5" of snow is expected by the time the system is through our area. It will take the entire day Sunday to get to this range as it'll be a prolonged lighter snowfall. IMPACTS: Roads will quickly become snow-covered and slick. Blowing and drifting snow doesn't appear as much of a concern due to wind staying at or below 15mph in many areas. The snow will be a powdery consistency, leading to easier snow removal than the last event which was heavier with sleet and freezing rain also weighing it down. Temperatures will remain in the 20s for the duration of the event.
Beyond the Weather: Goodbye, old friend
Many times, we look beyond the weather at objects in the heavens above. When the weather cooperates, we end up with many spectacular views in Iowa. Mars is often on our list of targets. The red planet can been seen this weekend in the west-southwest evening sky. While you can easily find Mars, you cannot see any of the exploration that has been done on the Martian surface. Back in 2004, NASA send a rover named Opportunity to the surface of Mars. As of Thursday, NASA has declared Opportunity’s mission on Mars at an end. More than 800 recovery commands have been sent to reestablish communication, but they have not succeeded. Over its more than 14 years on Mars, Opportunity has captured over 200,000 images, exploring more than 28 miles of the Martian surface. This page has more information. Happy stargazing!
Comparing this season’s snow to the 10 snowiest on record
The past month has had much more snow than usual, but we still have a lot of ground to make up to put this into one of the top 10 snowiest seasons on record. Through February 13, though, this season does crack the top 10 in most places and is just shy of the mark in Cedar Rapids. Remember that there wasn't much snow in December and the first half of January, which makes the ranking all the more interesting. Below are the snowfall totals for the season so far, along with the highest ten snowfall totals up through February 13, and the ten snowiest winters as a whole. Cedar Rapids Snowfall this season through February 13: 35.0” 10 snowiest seasons on record through February 13: 1) 2007-2008: 50.4” 2) 1978-1979: 50.1” 3) 1893-1894: 46.2” 4) 1904-1905: 45.9” 5) 2010-2011: 37.2” 6) 1977-1978: 36.9” 7) 1985-1986: 36.4” 8) 2000-2001: 35.5” 9) 1959-1960: 35.2” 10) 2009-2010: 35.1” 10 snowiest winters on record: 1) 2007-2008: 59.9” 1 Tie) 1950-1951: 59.9” 2) 1978-1979: 59.5” 2 Tie) 1961-1962: 59.5” 3) 1959-1960: 57.9” 4) 1904-1905: 57.7” 5) 1996-1997: 54.6” 6) 1974-1975: 53.8” 7) 1893-1894: 52.8” 8) 1951-1952: 50.3” 9) 1911-1912: 49.7” 10) 1972-1973: 48.6” Dubuque Snowfall this season through February 13: 38.5” 10 snowiest seasons on record through February 13: 1) 1978-1979: 59.5” 2) 1977-1978: 55.8” 3) 2010-2011: 55.4” 4) 1985-1986: 55.1” 5) 2007-2008: 54.4” 6) 2008-2009: 47.3” 7) 2000-2001: 47.1” 8) 1959-1960: 44.7” 9) 2013-2014: 44:5” 10) 1909-1910: 43.5” 10 snowiest winters on record: 1) 2007-2008: 78.7” 2) 1961-1962: 75.7” 3) 1974-1975: 75.0” 4) 1959-1960: 71.5” 5) 1977-1978: 71.3” 6) 1978-1979: 70.4” 7) 1958-1959: 65.9” 8) 1992-1993: 63.8” 9) 2010-2011: 63.5” 10) 2013-2014: 63.3” Iowa City Snowfall this season through February 13: 33.3” 10 snowiest seasons on record through February 13: 1) 2007-2008: 52.3” 2) 1935-1936: 49.5” 3) 1904-1905: 45.5” 4) 1897-1898: 44.0” 5) 1978-1979: 43.6” 6) 1893-1894: 42.8” 7) 2010-2011: 35.0” 8) 2000-2001: 34.0” 9) 2018-2019: 33.3” 10) 2009-2010: 30.8” 10 snowiest winters on record: 1) 1935-1936 61.2” 2) 2007-2008 59.8” 3) 1897-1898 54.0” 4) 1959-1960 52.6” 5) 1904-1905 52.0” 6) 1974-1975 51.8” 7) 1951-1952 50.0” 8) 1893-1894 48.6” 9) 1978-1979 48.1” 10) 1911-1912 47.5” Waterloo Snowfall this season through February 13: 40.1” 10 snowiest seasons on record through February 13: 1) 2009-2010: 47.2” 2) 2010-2011: 45.4” 3) 2008-2009: 42.1” 4) 2000-2001: 41.0” 5) 2018-2019: 40.1” 6) 2007-2008: 39.5” 7) 2015-2016: 38.9” 8) 2013-2014: 38.6” 9) 1904-1905: 38.0” 10) 1985-1986: 37.5” 10 snowiest winters on record: 1) 1961-1962: 59.4” 2) 2013-2014: 58.0” 3) 1992-1993: 57.6” 4) 2007-2008: 53.9” 5) 2009-2010: 52.8” 6) 1904-1905: 50.5” 7) 2012-2013: 50.1” 8) 2010-2011: 49.7” 9) 2008-2009: 49.5” 10) 1928-1929: 48.8”
A 40-inch spread in snow this season in Iowa
While our weather pattern has been very active over the past three weeks, the western part of Iowa has missed out almost entirely on snow. This is particularly true near and east of Sioux City, where seasonal totals haven't even reached eight inches yet! Compare that to Davenport, which has received over 44 inches. This can be attributed to bad (or good) luck, depending on your viewpoint. After a slow December, much of eastern Iowa has caught back up to normal or slightly above normal snowfall for the season.
Types of winter precipitation
From Tuesday afternoon through Thursday, all types of winter precipitation will occur across eastern Iowa. Snow and rain are the most common types, and both are very easy to explain. Freezing rain and sleet are more complicated and involve layers of warm and cold air. Snow that falls out of the cloud and doesn’t go through a deep or warm layer of air on the way to the ground stays as snow. Meanwhile, rain happens when there’s a deep layer of above-freezing air above the ground or all the way up to the clouds. Freezing rain occurs when a warm layer of air is present aloft, usually around 4,000 or 5,000 feet above the ground. Snow that falls into that layer melts into rain. After this point, the raindrop cannot change back into a snowflake and will fall into a shallow layer of below-freezing air near the ground. The liquid raindrop doesn’t have enough time to refreeze before hitting the ground, but turns into ice after reaching the surface. Sleet forms in a similar way, but the warm layer may be higher up in the atmosphere, or there is simply a deeper cold layer above the ground. The raindrop has enough time to freeze into an ice pellet before reaching the ground.