We rang in the new year Thursday with a cold but quiet day (perfect for watching football). Outside the far south, where some low stratus prevailed, the rest of the region enjoyed periods of sunshine. With winds generally 10mph or less, it's fair to say we got 2026 off to a promising start. You've probably heard the old proverb from Aesop's fable that slow and steady wins the race. So, just like the tortoise, we're going to let our weather plod slowly forward with the hope th

Happy New Year, everybody! Thanks for making TSwails your home for weather information. Here's hoping 2026 brings plenty of interesting and exciting weather. Meteorologist Nick Stewart and I are committed to bringing you reliable, insightful, forecasts that you can trust without the hype. We take great pride in doing weather right! Headed into January, the coldest month of the year, most of my local area has no snow on the ground, maybe a skiff in spots. That belies the fact

So here it is, the last day of December, and what a strange month it's been. Temperatures alone have been all over the board, with 2 morning lows of 8 below and 2 days with highs of 50. Typically, the month gets colder as it progresses. Not this year, with the first half of December averaging 13.6 degrees below normal. Then came the big flip and the second half of the month averaged 7.9 degrees above normal. Manic to say the least. Here's the actual breakdown of the individua

A powerful winter storm steam rolled the Midwest Sunday and Monday with a wide variety of weather ranging from blizzard conditions to tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. The National Weather Service reported over 1,000 storm reports including snow, straight line winds, and even a few tornadoes in EC Illinois Sunday through Monday morning. While my counties in SE Iowa and WC Illinois did experience thunderstorms, wind, and some snow showers, the worst of the stronger storms an

Bitter cold and strong wind gusts are leading to widespread sub-zero wind chills in the region. The coldest air will reside where the highest snow accumulation occurred Sunday and Sunday night to the northwest. The good news is wind gusts will be diminishing through the day today leading to less painful wind chill values Tuesday morning. The bad news is that the powerful winds will lead to blizzard conditions with extremely hazardous if not impossible travel conditions to the