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By the time you read this, spring will be over

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By Linda Cook | Monday, March 3, 2008 4:39 AM CST | () comments

Dana Ivers and Cindy Krist jog along the Mississippi River in Davenport Sunday. (Jeff Cook/QUAD-CITY TIMES) Buy this Photo

Well, Sunday wasn’t really spring ... but it certainly felt like it. Hundreds of Quad-Citians took the opportunity to take walks in light jackets, chip off the ice and snow from their sidewalks and driveways, and even drive with the windows down Sunday afternoon.

But now the Quad-Cities has returned to its below-normal temperatures that will continue for the rest of the week, along with an achingly slow warming trend.

Bill Nichols, meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said that rain, changing to a mixture of sleet and snow, will arrive early this morning. The Quad-Cities will receive an inch or two of snow, he said.

The high Sunday was 67 in Moline (that did not, incidentally, break a record for March 2, which was set at 71 degrees in 1992).

Having one warm day in the midst of a long siege of cold weather isn’t that unusual, he said. “It happens quite a bit,” Nichols said. “It’s just the fact that we’ve been so cold for so long” (that makes it seem so unusual).

“We’ve had all this snow which has accumulated over several weeks. It becomes dense,” Nichols said. “Most of the snow melted (Sunday), and it’s like having a 1- to 2-inch rain.

“We’ve had a lot of precipitation since November, so all the soil is basically soaked. Even underneath the ground is still frozen because we’ve been so cold. So there’s no place for the water to go.”

That’s why streets and even Interstate 280 between Illinois 92 and the Interstate 74 exits have so much standing water. The Rock River reached flood stage Sunday night, and that will contribute to possibilities of flooding.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for the Quad-Cities area through 9 a.m. today. “We know we’re going to have flooding. The question is how significant it’s going to be,” Nichols said.

“When the river does try and break up, ice jamming could be a real problem as well.”

Meanwhile, temperatures will remain near freezing.

“We are going to be warming because of spring,” Nichols said. “In terms of solar activity, we should be warming. But in terms of a major warmup, no.”

Temperatures will remain below normal for the next five or six days, he said. “We’re probably going to struggle to make freezing for the next five or six days for highs. We’re still 10 to 20 degrees below normal.”

The high for today may reach 32, he said, with 31 the predicted high for Tuesday, and about 32 for the high Wednesday. “It should be in the 40s right now,” Nichols said.

There’s a chance of some light amounts of snow Wednesday and Thursday, he said.

“The good news is the sun’s higher, so it’s stronger, even though the temperatures are not going to be extremely cold like it was in February,” Nichols said.

The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2450 or newsroom@qctimes.com.