So far this year Eastern Iowa has received record breaking temperature high’s and is below average for snow.
“It’s the most unusual year I’ve ever seen,” Kaj O’Mara said. “I’ve never had record breaking highs in the beginning of the week to six inches of snow at the end.” O’ Mara has been a meteorologist for almost five years and currently works for KCRG- TV 9.
O’Mara and other meteorologists began noticing the change in the weather during the first week of December. He describes the weather pattern as being positive for the first part of the season. This means that the colder Arctic winds were up north in Canada and Alaska, giving the states in the Midwest warmer weather.
Now the pattern is becoming more negative, meaning colder temperatures and snow for Iowa. As to how much snow we could expect, O’Mara said it’s tough to call. “We could expect about a foot more of snow for the season, and that’s still below average for the season.”
This isn’t the first year where there was a dry winter season. The winter of 2006-2007 had received only about a half inch of snow in December, however January was much colder than it was this year. This year, the temperatures have broken records set in 1928 and in the 1930’s. On January 5th, the record was broken by five degrees, with temperatures in the upper 50’s.
O’Mara notes that it’s too early to call if this year’s winter will cause droughts in the spring and summer. He did say that the spring flood risk is close to zero, meaning unless we get a large amount of snow in the rest of the season we won’t have a flood in the spring.
