Despite snowy forecast, St. Patrick’s Day Parade still planned for Saturday

Shannon Sellers, happiness coordinator at Bickford Assisted Living & Memory Care, paints an arm for the facility's St. Patrick's Day parade float, Guns N Irish Roses, at the facility in Marion on Wednesday. This is the fifth year the facility has had a float in the parade. Saturday’s parade will be the 48th of the Saint Patrick's Day Parade Society (SaPaDaPaSo). (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Shannon Sellers, happiness coordinator at Bickford Assisted Living & Memory Care, tapes the edges of an arm for the facility's St. Patrick's Day parade float, Guns N Irish Roses, at the facility in Marion on Wednesday. This is the fifth year the facility has had a float in the parade. Saturday’s parade will be the 48th parade of the Saint Patrick's Day Parade Society (SaPaDaPaSo). (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Thomas Clark rides with the CR Strollerz bicycle club during the 47th annual SaPaDaPaSo St. Patrick's Day parade in southeast Cedar Rapids on March 12, 2022. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Mary Dickson waves to and thanks parade entrants at the end of the parade route during the 47th annual SaPaDaPaSo St. Patrick's Day parade in southeast Cedar Rapids on March 12, 2022. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS — Another winter storm is projected to blow through Eastern Iowa Thursday into early Friday — but it won’t ruin Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in downtown Cedar Rapids, organizers insisted.

“We’re like the mailman. The weather doesn’t matter. Rain, sleet, snow,” said Michelle Lochner, president of the Saint Patrick's Day Parade Society, or SaPaDaPaSo — the nonprofit organizing the event. “We had a year where we had 10 inches of snow overnight into parade day, and we still had the parade.”

The storm could dump as much as 8 inches of snow on Cedar Rapids into Thursday night, according to the National Weather Service’s Quad Cities bureau. The city has a 56 percent chance for more than 6 inches of snow and an 81 percent chance for more than 4 inches.

Up to 9 inches of powder could blanket areas north of the city, like Waterloo and Dubuque. Forecasts decrease in severity farther south: Iowa City could receive up to 6 inches, and Burlington may receive only an inch.

Despite the snow, the 48th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade will still launch at 1 p.m. on Saturday. It will start at the corner of Sixth Street and Third Avenue, weave through downtown and end by the Cedar Rapids Downtown Public Library. It will last between an hour and an hour and a half.

The parade has only been canceled once in its history: March 2020, due to COVID-19. Weather won’t a problem for this year’s event, Lochner assured.

“We're ready for it,” she said. “It's Iowa. It's March. You never know what you're gonna get for weather. Hopefully everyone bundles up.”

Any snow from Thursday should be cleared from downtown roads by the parade’s start, said Cedar Rapids Public Works Assistant Director Michael Duffy. But there may be additional snowfall on Saturday and Sunday to be dealt with. Additionally, cleared snow pushed to curb lines likely won’t be removed in time for the event.

The winter storm is anticipated to restrict visibility and cover roads, making travel dangerous. The NWS Quad Cities bureau currently has lower confidence in snowfall projections, particularly in southeast Iowa, due to warm grounds and above freezing temperatures.

Brittney J. Miller is the Energy & Environment Reporter for The Gazette and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: (319) 398-8370; brittney.miller@thegazette.com