Strong indicators of first real snow for northern Illinois

DAVENPORT, Iowa — The National Weather Service for the Quad Cities announced that there are indicators that the first real snow of the season will strike next week — but tempered that forecast by saying there are still many variables.

The service also issued its recap of meteorological autumn, which was warmer and drier than normal.

The service said snow and a rain and snow mix are strong possibilities for Tuesday and Wednesday, based on a low pressure system moving in from the Rocky Mountain states. But the exact track of the storm and the amount of snow it will produce are both difficult to determine at this stage. At this time the target region for the storm stretches from upper Wisconsin, across Iowa and northern Illinois or as far south as the mid section of Illinois.

Average temperatures were higher than normal from September to November. Davenport was up 3.3 degrees. Other regional stations, except for Cedar Rapids, showed less precipitation. Davenport was down 2.23 inches from normal. Cedar Rapids was up 0.25 inches.

The winter outlook calls for the warming trend to continue. However, precipitation is expected to be above normal.