Do you have anyone in your family who swears when they were kids, it snowed all the time while they walked up hill both ways to school? Well, there may be at least some truth to that. (Not the up hill both ways part though.)
According to Climate Central, snowfall is on the decline and has been since 1973. You can see the spike from the late 1970s when we had several winter seasons with extreme amounts of snowfall.
Another way to look at the snow (or lack of it), is to look at how many records are being set.
The official National Weather Service stations that show up white on the map above show where more snow is being seen compared to the trends around 1970. That equates to about 27% of the stations.
73% of stations have seen less snow since 1970.
But don't count out snow from this point forward. A typical April in the Quad Cities brings us 0.9 inches of snowfall and a good rule of thumb is snow is possible right up until the leaves start appearing on trees. That's Mother Nature's way of saying that the snow is done.
And this pattern looks potentially snowy for the Upper Midwest. More than six inches of Spring snowfall is anticipated across the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Northern Wisconsin over the next five days. There's even some chance of a little wintry mix around here Saturday and then again next week. Notice that accumulation map showing the snow as close to us as Dubuque.
-Meteorologist Eric Sorensen