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Tracking a nice warming trend in the week ahead

Andrew’s tracking a warmer weather pattern in the days ahead, but that will also mean another strong storm system. Here’s when it arrives.

Bitterly cold wind chills will hang on for one more day as an Arctic area of high pressure lingers in the region. Thankfully, winds won't be nearly as gusty compared to Saturday night, meaning wind chills will drop to between -10 and -15.

Monday will be our last truly cold day for a while as a pattern change by Tuesday and especially Wednesday brings much warmer readings back to the Quad Cities.

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Monday's highs will be limited to the middle and upper teens, but by Tuesday our winds will switch to a more southerly direction bringing in a warmer air mass and allowing us to climb well into the 20s. We won't have to wait much beyond that to see our first above-freezing day as that arrives on Wednesday.

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What follows this warmth is another potent storm system for, you guessed it, the end of the week. Thursday and Friday look to be the main two days where we will be dealing with some sort of wintry weather. At this time, it appears we will see more of a rain and snow mix as opposed to ice when compared with this last system. The reason? This next storm doesn't look like it will reach it's maximum intensity as it gets close, which gives us a break from the freezing rain threat. The accumulating snowfall threat though is a bit higher since the colder air remains locked in place before the system arrives.

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While we wait for more details regarding the threats our next storm system will bring, let's have a look back and see where we stand when it comes to snowfall for both the season and beyond.

When looking at December 1st through today, we are still in a deficit thanks to a very quiet December and a similarly quiet start to the month of January. That put us behind about 3 inches compared to normal for that time frame. When you throw the data out even further, going back to July 1st which would encompass our snowy October and November, we are actually in a surplus for snowfall of more than five inches. This category will be trending up in the days ahead as we still have at least one more wintry system to get through.  It will also be important to keep an eye on this value when it comes to the impact river flooding will pose in the months ahead. The more "above normal" snowfall we see, the higher the threat for flooding in the spring.

Meteorologist Andrew Stutzke

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