We had the second earliest snowfall on record here in the Quad Cities on Saturday. Although it was just a trace of snow, it still qualified as snowfall. It began around 11 a.m. and quit about two hours later. The picture at the left was taken about five minutes after the heaviest snow was falling - big, thick flakes coming down made for a rather neat contrast versus the green grass and leaves on the trees.
We had our first hard freeze on Friday night/Saturday morning when temperature got down to 27 (-2 C) here in Davenport. Average first date of freezing temps around there is October 15, so that's not all that bad. But the average first snow in the area is usually in late November or early December. The little bit we had yesterday was a wake up call that winter is really just around the corner.
I suppose we can thankful that we weren't 300 miles to the west. Omaha got 3 to 5 inches of snow yesterday, and further west, North Platte had over a foot! I was talking to a good friend of mine from Omaha, Denny Duncan, on Saturday morning. He said, "Yes, I'm calling from the winter wonderland known as Omaha this morning." I was completely incredulous that they had all that snow. And while I was talking to him on the phone, I looked out to see the first snowflakes falling.
The last two years, almost automatically, we had our first snow on or around December 1. With temperatures that are 10 to 15 degrees cooler than normal forecast for the coming week, its going to feel more like late November than mid-October. Some people love snow - I hate it. I just hate everything about winter. But I love living in Iowa. I tell people, "9 months out of the year, this is a great place to live. It's that stretch from December 1 to February 28 that you have to get through each year."
Now it looks like that stretch from October 10 to February 28 is what we'll have to endure this year.
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