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Where's the Snow?

If you think it has been a weird winter for weather you are right.  

This weekend we are expecting 4 inches of snow for Sioux City, but if you look at the season as a whole, frozen-precipitation falls way behind average.  

“Sioux City just kind been one of those areas missing out on the heavier snowfalls. They either go to the south or the north.”

Mike Gillispie is a Service Hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

He says Sioux City experienced 10.5-inches of snow so far this season.  That’s less than half of our normal amount this time of year.  

However, Omaha has been hit with 22 inches, the city usually sees about 28 inches for the whole season.

Des Moines currently sits at 31 inches in February 15, 2019.  That is well above normal.

Gillispie admits it has been tough predicting where the snow is going to fly this winter.

“There’s been a lot of narrow bands of snow.  Trying to forecast where those narrow bands of snow are going to be is very difficult.”

One spot in Siouxland seeing a bit more snow; the Iowa Great Lakes region.  Spirit Lake is at 26.4 inches.  The community usually averages 31 inches a season.

This weekend should add to our snow total for Siouxland.

“It’s going to be a wide-spread, kind of long-duration kind of small-to-moderate snow-fall event. Starting mostly Saturday afternoon and continuing into Sunday afternoon.  We’re looking for about roughly 4 inches for the Sioux City area. That will be common for northwest Iowa to southwest South Dakota too.”

Gillispie, who has worked for the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls for 25 years, says he sees more extreme weather events when it comes to precipitation and temperatures.

“It could be the sign of climate change, or it could be better equipment to monitor more weather observations, better satellite,  better radar coverage, so we can see more extreme weather events.”

If you’re worried about the amount of snow this year, don’t worry because as those who forecast the weather know, things do change.

“The record snowfall in March in Sioux City is 27.3 inches from 1912.  The record for April is 22.9 inches in 1913.  So, we could pick up double-digits later in the season.  We could get back to that normal range by the end of the winter.”

Even with a winter with less snow, many still long for spring.