NWS: Elevated Risk for Spring Flooding on Rock River

The National Weather Service in the Quad Cities has released the first spring flood outlook of the year, which calls for an above-normal risk for flooding on the Rock River, especially southwest of Sterling/Rock Falls. Hydrologists and meteorologists look at a number of factors when issuing flood outlooks, including the amount of snow, current frost […]

UPDATE: 2020 First 1″ of Snowfall Contest Winner Announced

Congratulations to Kayla Gray, this year’s winner! Our most popular contest of the year is BACK! When will we see our first 1″ snowfall this year? This year we are proud to partner with a local business and very strong supporter of our community, Johnson Oil Company, to offer up a $50 gift certificate valid […]

Severe Storms Likely Monday Afternoon

The Storm Prediction Center has upgraded the risk for severe thunderstorms Monday afternoon to enhanced, or level 3 / 5. Early this morning a large complex of strong storms is ongoing in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. This complex is expected to continue moving east through the remainder of the morning and will likely intensify […]

Brief funnels possible Saturday evening

SATURDAY 7/4/20 We’re receiving several reports of a funnel cloud south of Sterling/Rock Falls this evening. Conditions today do not support strong, damaging tornadoes and these types of funnels rarely touch down and cause damage. Certainly neat to look at, though! Feel free to share your pictures!

Severe Storms Possible Friday

FRIDAY 6/26/20   SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING   Showers and storms moving through this morning will be capable of locally heavy rainfall.   Later this afternoon as much warmer and more humid air works into the region, a cold front will approach us from the west. Scattered severe storm development looks likely […]

Flash Flood Watch until Friday morning

A Flash Flood WATCH is now in effect for Lee and Whiteside Counties until 7am Friday morning. Heavy rain this morning of more than an inch combined with an additional round of heavy rainfall expected this evening and overnight may lead to areas of standing water and flash flooding. Localized rainfall amounts of up to […]

A few strong thunderstorms possible Thursday

Our morning round of thunderstorms brought up to an inch and a half of rainfall to some locations and we are not done with the rain quite yet. We’ll see some breaks in the clouds this afternoon allowing our atmosphere to destabilize some. With a front nearby another round of thunderstorms is likely by this […]

Freeze WARNING to kick off the weekend

Cooler temperatures return to end the week. While we will see generous amounts of sunshine early on today, that still won’t manage to warm us up past the lower 50s. Saturday will be the nicest day of the weekend (sorry moms!) as the brunt of a much colder pattern arrives by Sunday along with wind […]

Freeze Watch in effect for Friday night

A Freeze Watch has been issued for the entire region beginning Friday evening through Saturday morning. An unusually strong area of Arctic air will settle overhead for the upcoming weekend allowing overnight low temperatures to drop into the upper 20s by Saturday morning. This will create widespread frost and a possible freeze that may damage […]

Winter Weather Advisory in effect through Friday morning

A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for Lee and Whiteside Counties from 7pm this evening until 10am Friday morning. A potent late-season winter storm will bring snow accumulations of 2-4 inches by Friday morning to much of the area with localized 5-6 amounts possible in spots. Snow will begin near sunset this evening and […]

Severe Thunderstorm WATCH until 11pm Tuesday evening

A Severe Thunderstorm WATCH has been issued for Lee and Whiteside Counties until 11pm this evening. A few scattered strong to severe thunderstorms are likely along an approaching cold front early this evening. Threats: Tornadoes: Low Hail: Moderate Damaging Winds: Moderate Flash Flooding: Low Should a warning be issued for your location, seek shelter immediately […]

NWS Confirms EF-1 Tornado Saturday

The National Weather Service has confirmed that an EF-1 tornado touched down in southern Whiteside County Saturday evening as a severe storm raced across the area. The tornado touched down around 8:20pm and lifted around 8:22pm 5 miles to the southwest of Tampico. Damage was reported to outbuildings to the southwest of Tampico. Several trees […]

UPDATED: Significant Risk of Severe Storms Saturday

Updated 9:05am Saturday, March 28, 2020 Impressive rains fell across much of the Sauk Valley Region last night with many locations picking up more than an inch and even a few reports of as much as two and a half inches of rainfall. This morning we continue to monitor the short-term trends that will drive […]

Steady rains for Wednesday

Rain will become likely shortly after 8am this morning and continue through mid-afternoon. Total rainfall amounts of one quarter to one-half inch are likely. We’ll see a break in the rain overnight with cloudy conditions before the next round of rain and a few thunderstorms arrive by sunrise Thursday.

CONTEST ALERT: 2020 First 80° Day Contest

It’s back!!!!!!! 2020 “FIRST 80 DEGREE DAY” CONTEST RULES AND ENTRY INSTRUCTIONS: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Contest Date: March 5 through May 1, 2020 (or the week before the fist 80° temperature prediction*). Prize: $50 Gift Certificate to Johnson Oil Shell Express Lane Gas and Food Marts Eligibility: Must be at least 16 years old. Limit […]

Winter Storm Watch in effect from Monday through Wednesday morning

A Winter Storm WATCH has been issued for Whiteside County from 6pm Monday until Wednesday morning. A strong late-winter storm is looking more likely, especially Tuesday into Wednesday with long-duration snow possible. Total accumulations of six or more inches are possible with locally higher amounts. The exact track of this system is still likely to […]