Snowfall in Cumming, IA February 1st
Our weekend snowstorm has ended here in central and southern Iowa leaving behind a think blanket of snow ranging from 12 to as high as 14 inches. The concentrated totals between 12 and 14 inches seems to be confined to around from Madrid and the north side of the Des Moines metro eastward through parts of Marshall and Jasper counties. Here in Cumming I got a hefty one foot of snow. This came on the heels of a very mild end January, and a relatively quiet snowfall season because this snow by far surpasses anything we've had around here so far. Everyone remembers the 50s we had last week week, the ground was thawed and spring bulbs were starting to peek out, So much for an early spring in January! It's this mild airmass that actually helped feed even more moisture into the storm causing the high amounts. The snowfall is so thick I would not be surprised if the ground remained thawed underneath until the snow melts.
Snow covering spruce trees February 1st 2015
Our storm started on the west coast before moving into the middle of the country. Ahead of it continued our mild air mass, in fact the storm started as rain that was falling much of Saturday. I received 0.21" of rain before it started to change over to snow. Colder air was pulled in from the north and temperatures fell to about 33-34.F where is staid for the duration of the storm. Rain turned to heavy snow in this part of Iowa Saturday right around dusk and it lasted all night long and even into much of Sunday. Travel was inhibited and most people staid home, the convenient Sunday timing kept travel hazards to a minimum. Sunday afternoon winters cold air was finally pulled in and temperatures fell into the teens where they will stay for at least one day.
Heavy wet snow causing branches to be weighted down
The snow in nature was a classic concrete style snow. Very wet and heavy. A lack of wind and stickiness of the snow caused it to stick to tree branches and causing some breakage leading to power outages. At one point there were a couple thousand without power around the Des Moines metropolitan area. I found several large tree limbs that had broken off around my neighborhood, thankfully it was minimum around here and the power staid on, which was not the case in all areas. Looks like winter has finally really hit us here in Iowa. When can we look foreword to some decent melting? Not until next weekend!
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