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Warm Weather Hits Iowa;
Snowcover Shrinking Fast
The remaining snowcover from January’s winter storms was shrinking
in a hurry the first two weeks in February as temperatures soared into
the 50s throughout the state. Hopefully, this trend won’t continue for the
rest of the month.
“Weak El Nino conditions are persisting in the Pacific,” explained Harry
Hillaker, state climatologist for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and
Land Stewardship. “This favors warmer than normal weather in Iowa
and near normal precipitation in February.”
In his monthly summary for January, Hillaker said Iowa temperatures
averaged 19.6º or 1.8º above normal, while snowfall for the month
averaged 9.8 inches, or 1.6 inches more than normal. “This ranks as the
24th snowiest January among 118 years of records,” he said.
Nearly 90 percent of the state’s snowfall for the month was reported
during the Jan. 4-6 storm, which dumped heavy snow in a band from
Omaha to Waterloo and on into Wisconsin. Snowmobilers in northeast
Iowa were also greeted with a blizzard Jan. 21-22.
Click here for snowfall totals by county in January.
Snowcover Shrinking Fast
The remaining snowcover from January’s winter storms was shrinking
in a hurry the first two weeks in February as temperatures soared into
the 50s throughout the state. Hopefully, this trend won’t continue for the
rest of the month.
“Weak El Nino conditions are persisting in the Pacific,” explained Harry
Hillaker, state climatologist for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and
Land Stewardship. “This favors warmer than normal weather in Iowa
and near normal precipitation in February.”
In his monthly summary for January, Hillaker said Iowa temperatures
averaged 19.6º or 1.8º above normal, while snowfall for the month
averaged 9.8 inches, or 1.6 inches more than normal. “This ranks as the
24th snowiest January among 118 years of records,” he said.
Nearly 90 percent of the state’s snowfall for the month was reported
during the Jan. 4-6 storm, which dumped heavy snow in a band from
Omaha to Waterloo and on into Wisconsin. Snowmobilers in northeast
Iowa were also greeted with a blizzard Jan. 21-22.
Click here for snowfall totals by county in January.