Out of curiosity, we went over to the Iowa Environmental Mesonet’s website this evening to produce these two maps that show when the last Ice Storm Warning or Blizzard Warning was issued. It’s been a long time for both! For the Des Moines weather office, it’s been about six years since the last Ice Storm Warning in January 2010. This is much shorter for the Quad Cities weather office, the one office that could transition the Winter Storm Warning to a Ice Storm Warning, which last issued a Ice Storm Warning 1,063 days ago – in January 2013. Alaska has issued one more recently!

Blizzard Warnings wise, it has been around a year for the Des Moines, Sioux Falls, and La Crosse offices – but much longer for the other two. The Quad Cities weather office last issued one in January 2014 (699 days ago), and the Omaha weather office last issued one 1,771 days ago… in December 2012. To put this into perspective, Hawaii has issued one more recently than any other office. We are narrowing on the criteria for Blizzard Warning and it would not surprise me to see an upgrade in this regard.

Just some insightful information as we prepare for the upcoming storm tomorrow!