The past two days offered relief from the arctic air that was in place earlier this week. In typical Iowa fashion, the weather made a 360 degree turn from the cold air, and today it was some 30-to-40 degrees warmer. Areas in the south and central part of state had highs soar to the 40s to middle 50s, while the north had temperatures held back in the middle 30s due to thick snowcover in this area. The warmth melted much of the remaining snowcover that was in southern Iowa and now the southern one-third of the state is basically snow free at this time. These types of warm spells are nothing new to Iowa and in fact are normal. Unfortunately, like a typical January warm spell in Iowa, it will be short-lived. By Saturday, arctic air will settle back into the area, and highs will be in the single digits once again!

I took advantage of the warm spell/melt off to walk through the lawn and I saw a couple Snowdrops and some Crocus’ just barely poking through the mulch almost as if they are testing if it’s spring yet. Little do they know, it’s not! Still it is pretty refreshing to already be seeing some life in the garden. I’m not worried about the upcoming cold harming these new sprouts. At the young stage they’re at, no cold could harm them!

 

Report Highs – Thursday, January 14th

Lamoni 54° F
Shenandoah 54° F
Mount Pleasant 53° F
Davenport 50° F
Omaha/Council Bluffs 49° F
Ottumwa 49° F
Des Moines 48° F
Iowa City 47° F
Cedar Rapids 44° F
Ames 42° F
Marshalltown 42° F
Waterloo/Cedar Falls 41° F
Sioux City 41° F
Dubuque 40° F
Carroll 37° F
Decroah 37° F
Storm Lake 36° F
Sheldon 34° F
Mason City 34° F