Iowa in Midst of Snow Drought

Iowa’s in the midst of what’s called a “snow drought”.

While we had three weekends in a row of heavy snows starting right after Thanksgiving, state climatologist Justin Glisan says there’s been very little statewide snowfall since then. And though some Iowans may rejoice at having to do less shoveling, Glisan says it may become a problem once spring arrives – especially for farmers – if there’s little snowmelt and runoff in our rivers.

The new year started out warmer than normal in Iowa, which meant winter storms were dropping more rain than snow.

Manchester saw just over six inches of snow in January, bringing our winter total so far to 26.4 inches.

January was something of a rollercoaster month for temperatures, Glisan says, but we ended up with an average statewide temp of 19-point-3 degrees – just two-tenths of a degree below average.

He says long-range forecasts point to that groundhog being correct, with six more weeks of winter ahead.

The forecast is calling for eastern Iowa to see temps climb well into the 40s next week. While the calendar shows winter will last through March 19th, meteorological winter ends February 28th.

story courtesy of Radio Iowa; photo courtesy of NWS