Frigid Flashback

Is our recent arctic blast one for the record books?

KWQC Meteorologist Kevin Phelps is a numbers guy.

He has some answers.

This January has been the second snowiest

on record. Go back forty years to 1979.

That’s the record setter.

Phelps says the average temperature for the entire month was

six degrees.

Checking with special collections at the Davenport Public Library,

headlines read: Paralyzed

and Q-C Digs Out.

Pictures on local newspapers painted a thousand words.

The single coldest day on record in the Quad Cities:

February 3, 1996.

Twenty eight below zero.

The high that day eleven below.

KWQC archives are full of video footage of

the frigid reminders of the winter of 1979.

Cars buried in snow. Gridlock.

Firefighters battling the bone chilling cold to

extinguish flames.

Kevin Phelps says the record cold wind chill

was fifty four below.

On Wednesday, it got to fifty two below in the QCA.

The area is also bracing to break the January record for

snowfall. With another inch, a record will be set.

Kevin says we are witnessing history.

No matter how things play out.

Oh yes, this gentle reminder from

Mister Meteorologist:

“Just think, the beginning of the

month we were in the fifties!