(Des Moines) Fifty daily record temperatures were broken during the frigid cold that gripped the state earlier this month. State Climatologist Justin Glisan says weather stations scattered across the state posted daily record low and high temperatures.
Glisan says the record temperature readings fell across the state from February 13 through 15th. Some of those record low temperatures occurred in western Iowa. Additionally, a few newer weather stations not as old as the coop station in Atlantic, which has been around since 1893, broke all-time low-temperature readings.
For example, Mapleton in western Iowa posted a record temperature of 35-below zero. But the statewide record still stands. The oldest standard record low in history belonged to the eastern Iowa City of Elkader when the overnight temperature plummeted to 47-below zero. Also of note, this was the coldest seven to ten-day stretch recorded since 1936.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve experienced this long of a string of cold weather when we had a minus sign in front of the daytime highs and overnight lows,” said Glisan.
Snowfall amounts are well above average in northern and eastern Iowa for the winter season, starting on October 1. Snowfall amounts in those two regions of the state averaged 20-to-30 inches above normal. The heaviest snowfall amounts occurred in January and February.
“January came in as the 13th snowiest on record going back 133-years,” said Glisan. “The state averaged almost 13-inches of snow in January, which is about five inches above average, with northern and eastern Iowa receiving more than that. Currently, for February, the state averaged nine inches of snowfall which is two inches above average.”
Glisan says the snowiest February on record occurred in 2019.
On Thursday, we’ll discuss snowfall amounts and what it means for the drought-stricken areas of the southwest, west-central and northwest Iowa. On Friday, we will dive into the spring growing season forecast for moisture and what to expect for the state’s drier areas.
