Winter Storm — Henderson, Illinois

2021-01-01 · Henderson, Illinois

Event narrative

The COOP observer at the Gladstone Lock and Dam reported 3.0 inches of snow and sleet. There was also a public report of 0.2 inches of freezing rain in Oquawka.

Wider weather episode

A weaker winter storm moved into the area and added more ice and snow to the snow pack received the other day. This system moved in from the south and brought along a strong pull of warm air aloft. This led to a lot more ice accumulation than was expected prior to the event. While the storm was supposed to lead to mostly snow for the northern half of our forecast area, those areas received mainly freezing rain and sleet through most of the afternoon. This led to widespread ice accumulations of 0.10-0.25. This resulted in some downed tree limbs and power outages were a result.

Mid afternoon, the freezing rain began to switch to snow from a line around Iowa City, IA to Freeport, IL. Another band of snow set up just east of the Mississippi, where reports around 3 were noted in the Moline area. Overall, these were relatively light snowfall accumulations with most locations in northwest Illinois seeing 1 to 3 inches.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 937876. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.