A major winter storm moved from the southern Plains into the eastern Great Lakes from 20 January to 21 January 2006. Temperatures were critical during the event with some areas remaining all snow while others began as rain and transitioned to snow.
Every event with a place to put it; 6 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS DVN wrote it up.
A major winter storm moved from the southern Plains into the eastern Great Lakes from 20 January to 21 January 2006. Temperatures were critical during the event with some areas remaining all snow while others began as rain and transitioned to snow. During the transition, ice in the form of sleet or freezing rain occurred. Significant amounts of ice occurred in thunderstorms across far northeast Missouri, parts of west central, northwest, and north central Illinois. The last of the thunderstorms ended across Bureau and Henry counties of Illinois at 1900 CST.Radar data showed five distinct bands of heavier precipitation across the WFO DVN county warning area. These mesoscale bands of precipitation lead to snowfall and ice amounts varying greatly over small distances. Due to temperatures right around freezing, Lee and Des Moines counties in southeast Iowa and Henderson County in west central Illinois never received more than 0.20 inch of ice accumulation at any one time. Although not substantiated by ground truth reports, it is believed that extreme southern Warren county in west central Illinois received 0.25 inch of ice accumulation since it was in a heavier band of precipitation.Scotland and Clark counties in northeast Missouri along with McDonough and Hancock counties in west central Illinois received 0.25 inch ice accumulation followed by snowfall ranging from 0.5 to 3 inches. In Illinois, southeast Henry county and most of Bureau county received 0.25 inch ice accumulation with some areas up to 0.5 inch accumulation under the thunderstorms. Once the transition to snow was completed, co-operative observers in Bureau county received 6-8 inches of snowfall on top of the ice.Another mesoscale band of snow deposited 4 to 6 inches of snow in a band running from Fairfield Iowa in Jefferson County to Apple River Illinois in Jo Daviess County. A co-op observer in Lowden, Iowa (Cedar County) received 7 inches of snow in just under 9 hours.According to law enforcement, traffice accidents were most numerous in the areas that received significant ice accumulation whereas areas that received only snow reported no more than the usual amount of traffic accidents. Many schools either cancelled outright or had early dismissal before the worst of the ice accumulation began. Many trees were downed in areas that received significant ice accumulation.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Quad Cities, IA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jan 20, 3:04 AM CST, 10 hours 26 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 304 AM CST FRI JAN 20 2006 .SYNOPSIS... A COLD FRONT HAS PUSHED EAST OF THE CWA EARLY THIS MORNING...AND NOW IS POSITIONED FROM NORTHEAST OK...TO NEAR CHICAGO. LOW PRESSURE HAS FORMED IN THE PANHANDLE OF TX...AND IS SLOWLY DEEPENING. MOISTURE...THOUGH LIMITED TO A SHALLOW LAYER BELOW 800MB...IS MOVING NORTH INTO THE MIDWEST FROM THE OPEN GULF. SURFACE MOISTURE IS RETURNING WITH UPPER 40S DEWPOINTS AS CLOSE AT STL. THE PRIMARY SHORT WAVE IMPACTING THE REGION TODAY AND TONIGHT...IS LOCATED IN CENTRAL CO...AND APPEARS SLIGHTLY DEEPER THAN 00Z MODELS INITIALIZED IT AT. THE STAGE IS SET FOR A VERY DIFFICULT WINTRY FORECAST. && .SHORT TERM...TODAY AND TONIGHT... ALL OBSERVATIONAL AND MODEL DATA POINTS TO A SHORT LIVED...BUT VERY INTENSE PCPN EVENT THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH MIDNIGHT TONIGHT...AS LOW PRESSURE PASSES TO THE SOUTH OF THE CWA AND A STRONG SHORT WAVE TROF PASSES OVERHEAD. THE COMBINATION OF VERY STRONG UPWARD MOTION...WITHIN A SATURATED DENDRITIC LAYER SHOULD BRING A BAND OF MODERATE SNOW TO THE AREA FROM SOUTH TO NORTHEAST DURING THE MID AFTERNOON HOURS. IN ADDITION...THERE IS EXPECTED TO BE A WINDOW OF SUBSTANTIAL INSTABILITY ALOFT BETWEEN 22 AND 02Z THIS EVENING. THIS PERIOD COINCIDED WITH THE BEST MOISTURE AND LIFT. THE RESULT SHOULD BE ENHANCED CONVECTIVE SNOW...POSSIBLY THUNDER SNOW. FOR THIS REASON...WE WILL ISSUE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORIES FOR ROUGHLY THE SOUTHEAST 3/4 OF THE CWA. SNOW TOTALS GENERALLY OF 2 TO 4 INCHES WILL BE FOUND THROUGHOUT THIS AREA...WITH A 50 MILE WIDE BAND OF 3 TO 5 LIKELY EXTENDING FROM SOUTHWEST TO NORTHEAST. AMOUNTS AROUND 6 INCHES MAY OCCUR IN THAT BAND...BUT ITS EXACT PLACEMENT IS NOT ABSOLUTELY KNOWN...THEREFORE WE WILL HEAVY WORD PRODUCTS FOR ISOLATED HIGHER AMOUNTS...AND LET THE NEXT SHIFT ISSUE FOR THE PERFECT SET OF COUNTIES THAT MAY RECEIVE WARNING CRITERIA. SINCE THE EVENT IS CENTERED NEAR 00Z...THERE SHOULD STILL BE TIME TO ANALYZE THE LOCATION OF THIS BAND BEYOND EARLY ZFP ISSUANCE TODAY. BY LATER TONIGHT...THE SYSTEM WILL RAPIDLY PULL EAST OF THE REGION...LEAVING CLEARING SKIES AND LIGHT NORTHWEST WINDS. ..ERVIN.. .LONG TERM...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY... NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE THE REMAINDER OF THE FORECAST. WE DID LOWER TEMPERATURES BELOW GUIDANCE OVER LOCATIONS EXPECTING SNOW COVER SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. ..ERVIN.. && .DVN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... IA...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR ALL COUNTIES SOUTHEAST OF CEDAR RAPIDS TO BELLEVUE LINE LATE THIS AFTERNOON THOUGH LATE TONIGHT.. IL...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR WEST CENTRAL COUNTIES THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE TONIGHT. WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR ALL REMAINING COUNTIES LATE THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE TONIGHT. MO...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR ALL COUNTIES THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE TONIGHT. && ERVIN
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 450 AM CST FRI JAN 20 2006 IAZ040>042-051>054-063>068-076>078-087>089-098-099-ILZ001-002-007- 009-015>018-024>026-034-035-MOZ009-010-211100- BENTON IA-BUCHANAN IA-BUREAU IL-CARROLL IL-CEDAR IA-CLARK MO- CLINTON IA-DELAWARE IA-DES MOINES IA-DUBUQUE IA-HANCOCK IL- HENDERSON IL-HENRY IA-HENRY IL-IOWA IA-JACKSON IA-JEFFERSON IA- JO DAVIESS IL-JOHNSON IA-JONES IA-KEOKUK IA-LEE IA-LINN IA-LOUISA IA- MCDONOUGH IL-MERCER IL-MUSCATINE IA-PUTNAM IL-ROCK ISLAND IL- SCOTLAND MO-SCOTT IA-STEPHENSON IL-VAN BUREN IA-WARREN IL- WASHINGTON IA-WHITESIDE IL- 450 AM CST FRI JAN 20 2006 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTH CENTRAL ILLINOIS...NORTHWEST ILLINOIS...WEST CENTRAL ILLINOIS...EAST CENTRAL IOWA...NORTHEAST IOWA...SOUTHEAST IOWA AND NORTHEAST MISSOURI. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT HEAVY SNOW WILL BE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT AS A FAST MOVING STORM SYSTEM MOVES THROUGH THE REGION. ACCUMULATING SNOW WILL BE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE ENTIRE OUTLOOK AREA... WITH AMOUNTS GENERALLY 2 TO 5 INCHES SOUTHEAST OF A LINE FROM MARENGO TO BELLEVUE...TO STOCKTON ILLINOIS. RAIN MAY MIX WITH THE SNOW EARLY THIS AFTERNOON IN AREAS SOUTH OF HIGHWAY 34. LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND THIS EVENING...A PERIOD OF VERY HEAVY SNOW IS POSSIBLE AS THE ATMOSPHERE BECOMES UNSTABLE. THIS MAY ALLOW A FEW BANDS OF THUNDERSNOW TO OCCUR...WHICH COULD CAUSE ISOLATED AMOUNTS EXCEEDING 5 INCHES AND VISIBILITIES UNDER A QUARTER MILE AT TIMES. THE EXACT PLACEMENT OF THESE NARROW...BUT INTENSE BANDS OF SNOW ARE MOST LIKELY 50 MILES EITHER SIDE OF A LINE FROM FAIRFIELD...TO THE QUAD CITIES...TO FREEPORT. WINTER WEATHER ADVISORIES ARE IN EFFECT THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT FOR ALL LOCATIONS SOUTHEAST OF A CEDAR RAPIDS TO BELLEVUE LINE. A PORTION OF THIS AREA MAY BE UPGRADED TO A WINTER STORM WARNING LATER TODAY AS DETAILS OF THE POSSIBLE THUNDERSNOW EVENT BECOME BETTER DEFINED. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY AND TONIGHT. SNOWFALL REPORTS WOULD BE HELPFUL THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. ERVIN
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 ice storm, 2 winter storm, 1 winter weather. Local standard time, as filed.
Also from Co-op observers
Also from Co-op observers.
Also from Co-op observers
Also from Co-op observers
Also from Co-op observers
Also from Co-op observers
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Illinois in 2006Every state in 2006This day in weather historyWarnings in Illinois, January 2006
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5486331, 5486332, 5486330, 5486328, 5486327, 5486329.