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I'M USING SNOW BLOWER MONEY TO BY PALM TREES...


As expected a clipper made a mad dash on the Midwest Monday delivering a wide variety of weather. Highs around Green Bay held in the teens and several inches of snow fell on central Wisconsin. Further south the sun was out and in Kansas City the high soared to 60 degrees. Even my area got into the warm sector and highs hit 50 in my southern counties (45 here in Cedar Rapids). That’s more like early March!

With one more day to go in January snowfall here in Cedar Rapids remains at 1″ for the month. Thatt ties us for the second least snowiest January on record. In the Quad Cities the month was even worse with less than a half inch measured (0.4″).

Below you can see just how bad it’s been for snow lovers like me in January. Much of my area has had just 2-25% of its normal snowfall.

Here’s the yearly snowfall totals around the Midwest as of yesterday.

From northern Iowa in Minnesota and Wisconsin its actually has not been that bad of a winter for snow. However, from that area southward its been bad sledding with much of the snow that’s occurred falling in early to mid-December. Here’s the departure from mean since the beginning of the snow season. The only areas near normal are those in light green. Everybody else is well below the mean.

Not that were in an especially snowy part of the country, but for my local area the last three years have been lame, especially the last 2. Normal snow across the region ranges from 28 to 42 from south to north. Last winter in Cedar Rapids we ended up with 15.1″. That made it the least snowy winter since 1988-89 . This year is on a pace to be just as bad if not worse. So far we’re at 11.0″ (19.1 is normal at this point in the winter). The worst ever is 8.1″ in 1921-22. At least we have that beat!

The Quad Cities had 24.1″ last year which was the least since 2011-12 when 16.9 fell. This year’s total is at 14.2 but about 10″ of that came on one day back in early December. The all-time worst winter was 1986-87 when a meager 11.6″ accumulated.

The numbers don’t lie, the past two winters have been horrible for the white gold and I’m glad I didn’t invest in a snow blower. The money I’ve saved I plan on using to invest in palm trees which will soon be growing in eastern Iowa! And so it goes. Roll weather…TS