Today marks the first day of Spring in the Midwest. Well, the calendar certainly says that, but taking a look outside shows its still winter. It's a balmy 18 degrees in Davenport this morning. Temperatures today on the first day of Spring are not going to make it out of the mid 20's in the area.
This is all happening a full year after we had a consecutive run of late Winter days with record high temperatures across Eastern Iowa and Northern Illinois.
(Cartoon courtesy Dave Granlund)
I said to my wife a couple three weeks ago, "I'm ready for warm weather." I'm still waiting. I did feel a 72 degree day in Kansas City when I was there last week, but two days later it was 39 for those people who have suffered through a couple monster winter storms this season.
Talking with dealers of mine in Fargo and Minneapolis, they, too, are ready for Spring. But long term forecasts show no sign of immediate warming in the upper Midwest. Seasonal Affective Disorders are holding on a little longer this year for many Midwesterners.
A year ago, we had shoots on our rose bushes, daffodils and tulips were popping out early, the grass was green and I think I had already mowed once before the first day of Spring. We had roses a full six weeks before normal last year, and even with a frost in early May, we still had one of the most beautiful Spring-times that I can remember.
But Spring is still far away and local Quad City meteorologist Terry Swails from WQAD-TV is telling us that GFS models are showing a significant snowfall for Iowa and Illinois starting Sunday and continuing into Monday - a snowfall that could drop 8 to 14 inches of heavy, wet snow with some areas getting locally heavier amounts. Unfortunately, it looks like the heart of the storm is going right through the Quad Cities. My grandma always said, "There's always one last big snow before Spring comes." I was hoping the one we had a couple weeks ago would be the last big one of Winter. Now I'm really hoping we don't see any April snowstorms. Stay tuned...
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