Quad Cities 2023: Twisters, triple digits, and trembling ground
Tornado outbreaks in the spring, scorching heat in the summer and an earthquake in the fall. We're looking back on a busy weather year in the Quad Cities.
The end of 2023 is quickly approaching and for many of us, we are still trying to catch our breath after what has seemed like a marathon of weather this year. From tornadoes and flooding to an earthquake. We've been thrown almost everything but the kitchen sink it seems! We're recapping the biggest weather events of the year for the Quad Cities region. A big thank you to everyone who helped us tell your stories this year. Whether it was sending in photos and videos through the News 8 App, or sending us a quick note about damage in your area, we greatly appreciate it!
Here's to a much calmer 2024!
January 2023 Iowa Tornadoes
JANUARY 16, 2023 - An unusually warm January day featuring temperatures in the 60s paired with a strong area of low pressure tracking through Iowa came together just right to produce two tornadoes in eastern Iowa. One touched down in Iowa County northeast of Williamsburg, Iowa, tipping over a semi-tractor trailer on Interstate 80 and damaging farmstead buildings. No injuries were reported.
"In our part of the country, just kind of outlines the fact that folks really need to be prepared for severe weather year-round. Especially when we get some of these unseasonably mild days," said Rich Kinney, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in the Quad Cities. This was the first pair of January twisters in the state of Iowa since 1967.
A complete listing of reports from this particular storm can be found here.
February 2023 Ice Storm
FEBRUARY 22, 2023 - A potent winter storm system with an unusually high amount of moisture tracked just south of the Quad Cities on this day. A widespread heavy rain event turned into an ice storm as colder air filtered into the region. Moline picked up more than an inch of rain along with many of our other hometowns. Quite a feat for February!
Ice was most pronounced north of Interstate 80 on the Iowa side, with some reports of up to three-tenths of an inch of ice accumulation. The ice leads to slick roads and scattered power outages.
A complete listing of reports related to this event can be found here.
March 2023 Heavy snowfall
MARCH 25, 2023 - A strong late-season winter storm blasted much of the Quad Cities with heavy, wet snow on this day. Originally beginning as rain, a transition to snow occurred later in the day.
The heaviest snow fell from Burlington, Iowa, to Galesburg, Illinois. The snow weighed heavily on tree branches due to the wet, heavy type of snow that fell causing power outages and numerous accidents.
Topping the list was more than a foot of snow in rural Jo Daviess County, Illinois, near Elizabeth. Other scattered reports of heavy snow above 10 inches were reported in parts of Scott County.
A complete listing of reports related to this storm can be found here.
March Tornado Outbreak
MARCH 31, 2023 - Tornadoes and severe storms rolled across Iowa on March 31, damaging a trailer park in Mediapolis, buildings in Geneseo and a historic home in Clinton County.
The National Weather Service counted 13 tornadoes for the Quad Cities region, with many of the tornadoes being rated EF-1 and EF-2 in strength. A dozen people were reportedly injured by the storms.
The Storm Prediction Center issued an extremely rare 'high risk' category outlook for severe weather for much of the Quad Cities region, the first one since June 13, 2013.
Our News Eight Drone found evidence of ground scouring to the southwest of Geneseo, a sign of where the tornado traveled.
A complete listing of reports related to this storm can be found here.
April Tornado Outbreak
APRIL 4, 2023 - Days after the Iowa tornadoes, a severe storm hit Rock Island County from Tuesday morning to the early hours of Wednesday. A tornado in Colona took down a Shell gas station's roof and front wall. Just behind the convenience store, the roof of Hometown Bait & Paddle was almost completely torn off, with the front of the building crushed.
Colona saw wind gusts of up to 120 MPH. An EF-1 tornado was also reported near Woodhull.
In Moline, Steve's Belgrade, a bar just down the street from WQAD, had its roof ripped off. The iconic Black Hawk statue in Rock Island came down and was hauled off by city workers the next day.
A confirmed tornado also traveled near John Deere Road flipping a semi over on its side in the Walmart parking lot and significantly damaging traffic signals and powerlines in the Rock River Shopping Plaza.
A complete listing of reports related to this storm can be found here.
April Flooding Mississippi River flooding
APRIL 4, 2023 - Communities along the Upper Mississippi River scrambled as the always-massive river swelled to near-record levels, forcing some to evacuate while others downstream stacked sandbag walls and closed off flood-prone areas.
The river grew so large because of a huge snowpack in northern Minnesota that began to quickly melt the week before because of rising temperatures.
Buffalo, Muscatine, Davenport, Burlington and others prepared ahead of time. The Quad Cities River Bandits played their first home game as the stadium was surrounded by flood waters. Campbell's Island, Bettendorf and Moline took more time to clean up the flood damage.
June Scott County Tornado
JUNE 24, 2023 - Meteorologists with the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities say an EF-0 tornado with winds estimated at 75 mph developed two miles east of Walcott along I-80 around 10:30 p.m. on June 24. A tornado warning was issued around the same time for much of Scott County. The tornado tracked east along the interstate causing scattered tree damage and some minor damage to buildings near the Northwest Boulevard exit in Davenport.
The tornado then traveled across the Davenport Municipal Airport damaging canopies, tents and other equipment, passing just south of the National Weather Service Office, where meteorologists on duty had to temporarily seek shelter.
In total, the tornado traveled nearly 10 miles and had a maximum width of 20 yards. No injuries were reported at the time.
A complete listing of reports related to this storm can be found here.
June Another Derecho
JUNE 29, 2023 - A complex of severe thunderstorms developed across parts of eastern Nebraska and Kansas, quickly racing east and creating widespread wind damage. These storms quickly intensified across far northern Missouri during the morning. Wind gusts reached 100+ mph at times persisting for several minutes, bringing down hundreds of trees and damage to numerous powerlines. More than 500 reports of wind damage were received from across the region.
The storm system was later classified as a derecho due to its widespread nature and consistently intense wind speeds. The storm injured two people in Ferris, Illinois.
A complete listing of reports related to this storm can be found here.
July 2023 Tornadoes & Wind
JULY 28, 2023 - A very hot, humid, and unstable air mass interacted with an approaching frontal boundary and disturbance to produce severe thunderstorms that initially formed in northern Iowa and southern Wisconsin.
As storms worked their way into the Quad Cities, wind gusts ramped up to 70 MPH across the Highway 20 corridor. Another more significant storm near Highway 30 created 80+ MPH wind gusts as it moved through Clinton, Iowa. One brief tornado rated an EF-0 touched down in Clinton.
A complete listing of reports related to this storm can be found here.
August 2023 Burlington Downpour
AUG. 4/5, 2023 - A storm system brought damaging winds, straight-line winds, heavy rains, flash flooding, hail and thunderstorms, resulting in "significant damage to public and private property and power outages resulting from downed power lines and poles."
Clouds dumped a record 6.14 inches of rain in Burlington on Aug. 5, smashing the previous daily record of 2.03 inches in 1903.
According to a release from the Office of the Governor, the proclamation activated the Iowa Individual Assistance Grant Program and the Disaster Case Advocacy Program.
A complete listing of reports related to this storm can be found here.
August 2023 100° Heat
AUGUST 24, 2023 - The Quad Cities logged the first 100-degree temperature reading since 2012 as a strong area of high pressure baked the Midwest. Moline tied the record high of 100 degrees on this day set back in 1936. Heat index readings soared well into the 110s with a few hometowns seeing peak heat index readings near 115 degrees that afternoon.
Several community cooling centers were opened during the week and many school districts adjusted their schedules and outdoor activities to keep kids safe in the heat. Local hospitals reported some heat-related illnesses.
Meteorologist Andrew Stutzke explained how this heat wave differed from the one we experienced with the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.
A complete listing of reports related to this event can be found here.
November 2023 Earthquake
NOVEMBER 15, 2023 - An early morning earthquake sent tremors across much of north-central Illinois. The quake was centered near Standard, Illinois, just outside Peoria, and registered as a magnitude 3.6 according to the United States Geological Survey.
Shaking was felt as far north as Dubuque, Iowa. The most recent earthquake in the region included a magnitude 2.6 near Herrick, Illinois, on October 26th of this year. No damage was reported and the earthquake was fairly shallow.
A complete report on this earthquake from the USGS can be found, here.