From the above graphics from WQAD and the National Weather Service, it appears that we're going to get a major shot of snow in the Quad City area starting this afternoon into this evening. And depending upon which graphic you believe, we're slated to end up with 10 to 15 inches of snow in the area. On top of all that, winds will pick up and the temperatures will drop significantly ushering in blizzard conditions in the area.
We already received just under two inches of snow that started yesterday afternoon and was on and off through the evening. That was just the appetizer for what's coming later today.
Although we're in line to get over a foot of snow, parts of Central Illinois on up to the Chicago area could receive up to two feet of snow. Peoria is right in the path of the heavy snow and as shown on today's front page of the Peoria Journal Star, the area is expecting at least 18 inches.
The storm has a chance to become the largest snow total to hit the Quad Cities - ever. The most snow in a snow event for this area happened back in 1979. 18.4 inches of snow officially fell on the Quad Cities over January 12-14, 1979. Some locals will tell you they easily had close to two feet of snow fall on their yards.
I've lived here for nearly 20 years and two of the largest snow falls on record have happened while I've been here. The first one was on January 19, 1995 where we got just over 15 inches of snow. I remember that one well - I was supposed to go to L.A. for a meeting and got delayed two days. I eventually went - I probably shouldn't have as I missed about 2/3rds of the meeting - but it meant more for me to get the hell out of here for a couple three days and get away from the snow.
Over January 1st thru the 3rd in 1999, we received 14.3 inches, most of it coming on the night of January 1. That's back when I still had my Chevy Lumina Eurosport, the best car to get through snow that I've ever had in my life. One of my neighbors at the old house we lived at on the west side of Davenport brought home an end loader to clean up the alley and in front of the neighbor's houses. When I went to move my car that was parked on the street in front of our house, he said, "There's no way you'll get through this." I popped the car in drive and plowed right down the street. I came back around the block and he had the place where I parked all cleaned out. He said, "Wow! I would have never bet you would have been able to get out of that parking spot, let along get around the block!"
This is the first big storm we've had at the house we've lived at now for the past eight and a half years. We've got a snow blower and it will get a workout doing our long driveway, our walks and quite probably our neighbor's walks and driveways. We're well stocked and sort of looking forward to hunkering down. But, quite honestly, it's days like these where I do a lot of day dreaming about Hawaii.
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