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National Weather Service Quad Cities, Iowa/Illinois

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office
Quad Cities

The forecast office in Davenport, Iowa on 1 August 2024
Agency overview
TypeMeteorological
JurisdictionFederal Government of the United States
Headquarters9040 N Harrison Street
Davenport Municipal Airport
Davenport, IA 52806-7326
Employees19
Agency executives
  • Ed Holicky, Meteorologist in Charge
  • Rich Kinney, Warning Coordination Meteorologist
Parent agencyNational Weather Service
Websitewww.weather.gov/dvn/

National Weather Service Quad Cities is a National Weather Service weather forecast office based in Davenport, Iowa.[1] It is tasked with providing weather and emergency information to 21 counties in east-central and southeast Iowa, 13 counties in northwest and west-central Illinois, and two counties in extreme northeast Missouri.[2]

History

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The Quad Cities Weather office was established on May 24, 1871, starting out on the third floor of the First National Bank building at Second and Main Streets in Davenport. The office would move around Davenport several times over the course of the next sixty-five years before relocating across the state line to the Moline airport (now known as Quad Cities International Airport) in October 1936.

On April 4, 1981, an F1 tornado directly struck the forecast office, causing considerable damage with the west entrance door and numerous windows forced open and furniture inside the facility moved by the tornadic winds.[3]

In October 1993, construction on a new facility for the Quad Cities office began near Davenport Municipal Airport, and the Quad Cities NWS began the transition from Moline back to Davenport, a move that was completed by February 1995. The following month, the Quad Cities office's county warning area expanded to 34 counties – 21 in Iowa and 13 in Illinois. In November 1999, the St. Louis NWS office transferred responsibility for Clark and Scotland counties in extreme northeast Missouri to the Quad Cities weather office, bringing the total number of counties in the Quad Cities office's county warning area to its present number of 36.

In June 2017, the Quad Cities office moved into a new facility, also on the grounds of Davenport Municipal Airport.[4]

Significant events

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National Weather Service Quad Cities has overseen many significant weather events since its foundation, including the August 2020 Midwest derecho, which brought powerful winds over 80 mph (130 km/h) across a large area of its county warning area, as well as gusts to 140 mph (230 km/h) to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.[5] The office earned an NWS Director's Award in 2024 for its work forecasting and issuing watches and warnings during the Tornado outbreak of March 31 – April 1, 2023.[6] In 2024, the office issued their record highest amount of severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings, with 352 severe thunderstorm warnings issued and 66 tornado warnings issued during the spring and summer season.[7]

NOAA Weather Radio

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The Quad Cities forecast office operates the following eleven NOAA Weather Radio transmitters to broadcast weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and other relevant emergency information to persons in its county warning area, as well as adjacent counties served by other NWS forecast offices:

City of license Call sign Frequency (MHz) Service area of transmitter
Cedar Rapids, Iowa WXL61 162.475 MHz Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas
Delaware County, Iowa KJY64 162.450 MHz portions of northeast Iowa
Jamestown, Wisconsin WXL64 162.400 MHz Dubuque area
Fairfield, Iowa WXN85 162.400 MHz portions of southeast Iowa
Eleroy, Illinois KZZ56 162.450 MHz Freeport area
Macomb, Illinois WXJ92 162.500 MHz portions of west-central Illinois
Jackson County, Iowa KZZ83 162.425 MHz extreme east-central Iowa
Kahoka, Missouri WXL99 162.450 MHz extreme northeast Missouri, extreme southeast Iowa, extreme west-central Illinois
Tiskilwa, Illinois WXL22 162.425 MHz portions of northwest Illinois
Rock Island, Illinois WXJ73 162.550 MHz Quad Cities metropolitan area
West Burlington, Iowa WXN83 162.525 MHz Burlington area

References

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  1. ^ US Department of Commerce, NOAA. "About the NWS Quad Cities Forecast Office". www.weather.gov. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  2. ^ US Department of Commerce, NOAA. "Quad Cities, IA/IL". www.weather.gov. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  3. ^ "Storm Events Database". National Centers for Environmental Information.
  4. ^ "About the NWS Quad Cities Forecast Office".
  5. ^ "Midwest Derecho - August 10, 2020, Updated: 10/8/20 12 pm". National Weather Service Quad Cities, IA/IL. 8 October 2020.
  6. ^ "About the NWS Quad Cities Forecast Office".
  7. ^ "Fall 2024" (PDF). The Riverbend Reader. 1 (3). National Weather Service Quad Cities, Iowa/Illinois.
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