Snow advisory for Riverdale
All residents of Riverdale are advised that a heavy snowfall is expected this weekend and to take appropriate action to allow road cleaning and maintenance crews full access to the City’s streets and other public infrastructure.
Winter Storm Warning issued for Scott County
According to the National Weather Service, a Winter Storm Warning is in effect from 6pm this evening (January 10) through midnight tomorrow (January 11). Heavy snow and mixed precipitation is expected. Total snow and sleet accumulations of 3 – 7″ are expected along with ice accumulations of up to a quarter inch.
Wind gusts on Saturday could reach 35 mph.
Travel is expected to be difficult and due to the ice and wind, tree and power line damage may occur. If you must travel, please be sure to bring an extra flashlight and food/water in case you get stranded in your car. If you’re traveling in Iowa, you can dial 5-1-1 for road conditions.
Winter storm preparations at home
For Riverdale residents, we ask you make sure your car is out of the street and parked in your driveway, if at all possible. This will allow road clearing crews to move as much of the snow off the streets on their first pass as possible.
Snow removal services are contracted with the City of Bettendorf. If you’re curious as to how the plow crews are called out, what gets plowed first and tips on how to make sure the service you receive is as good as possible, check out this article we published last September that spelled all of that out.
Following our first snow events this year, we also learned a few other important lessons – so please keep this information in mind as you prepare for this weekend’s weather:
There are some things Riverdale residents can do to make sure the Bettendorf DPW plows are able to do a good job for the City. Among those:
1. If the snow is falling on a Sunday night, make sure your garbage and recycling bins are away from the curb so there’s room to push the snow. The November 11th plow was particularly difficult because not only were there waste and recycling bins up to the curb, many residents had spent time over the weekend bagging leaves. Plow drivers (many of whom were new to the job) were wary of plowing too close to the curb for fear of hitting a rolling bin (which did happen, twice) or some bags of leaves and creating a bigger mess in the street.
2. If you know snow is coming, please put your car in your driveway. Leaving your car parked in the street makes the driver swerve away from the curb to get around your vehicle and leaves a lot of unplowed snow in the street which can freeze and make it all that more difficult to get the street clean later on in the day.
Driveway Snow Removal Tips
3. If possible, create a “landing zone” for snow pushed by the plow in advance of it getting to your driveway (see the diagram to the right). By doing this, you’ll minimize the amount of snow pushed onto the end of your driveway and make getting out and onto Riverdale’s freshly-plowed streets easier.
4. When you’re shoveling or snow-blowing your driveway, make sure you go side-to-side and avoid pushing your driveway snow into the street. This will help decrease the amount of time DPW’s crews need to work clearing our streets (and save us money in the process) and improves safety for other vehicles by reducing the chance of random ice-spots developing on our main roads.
Winter Storm Preparation Tips
Finally, from our friends at The Weather Channel, we pulled these 14 tips on how to prepare for a winter storm. And while some of the tips may be a little much for a 3-7″ storm (do we really need a hand-cranked, NOAA Weather Radio?), it’s always good to give a list like this a quick review to make sure nothing has slipped your mind.
One tip that’s good to keep in mind, though, is to make sure that if you have water pipes that might be exposed to ultra-cold temperatures for an extended period of time, that they’re either drained of water or are set to drip/trickle water to help prevent freezing.
Stay warm and safe this weekend!
