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Double whammy
Storms leave more than a foot of snow across Eastern Iowa
MARENGO — Snow began falling Monday evening, Jan. 8, in Eastern Iowa and intensified Tuesday morning. Schools canceled classes based on predictions of huge amounts of snow expected in the winter storm.
By 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, Marengo had reported 4.4 inches of snow to the National Weather Service; Williamsburg and North English reported 4.0.
That was just the beginning.
Throughout the day Jan. 9, flakes grew larger and fell faster, and winds picked up. By 3 p.m. Tuesday, Marengo was reporting 8.8 inches while North English reported 10.5. By 5 p.m. Williamsburg had 10.4 inches. North English and Parnell were up to 11.5.
At the end of round one, Montezuma reported 11 inches of snow.
The Iowa Department of Transportation advised people to stay off I-80, to remain home, take an alternate route or find a place to spend the night.
The DOT reported Wednesday morning that Highway 6 was completely covered from Homestead into Coralville, but the highway was clear from South Amana through Marengo and past Ladora.
To the south, Highway 149 was clear Wednesday morning from I-80 through Williamsburg, Parnell and North English. Highway 22 from Wellman through South English and Thornburg to the west.
I-80 was clear, but dozens of vehicles lined the roadway, ribbons of color indicating that law enforcement had checked the vehicles. Six semi-trailers were off the interstate within a mile of Exit 220 at Williamsburg.
Sheriff
“Interstate 80 was a parking lot from Oxford to Williamsburg,” Iowa County Sheriff Robert Rotters said Thursday afternoon. Twenty semis were either jackknifed in the road or in the median.
Of course, there were cars in the ditches too, said Rotter.
“The locals do a good job of staying home. It’s the ones on the interstate that don’t want to stop,” Rotter said.
Friday’s storm was expected to be “more of a wind event,” said Rotter. Nine inches of fluffy snow blowing into drifts “is going to be a challenge.”
The Iowa County Sheriff’s Department covers the county 24 hours a day, seven days a week with 11 officers, so the county has only four officers on duty at a time, said Rotter. “That’s as many as we can have out. We only have so many people, and they have to get home and sleep too.”
Another round of snow hit Friday morning, and conditions worsened again. The finer snow, accompanied by high winds, blew across roads and decreased visibility. The DOT reported all roads in eastern Iowa unpassable Saturday morning.
An Iowa State Trooper’s vehicle was smashed by a semi on I-80 near Williamsburg during Friday’s storm. The Trooper escaped without injury.
Winds continued to gust Saturday, blowing snow across roads and making travel unadvisable. Temperatures plummeted to dangerous levels, with highs below zero. A wind chill warning was in effect through noon Tuesday, Jan. 16.
Though rising above zero, temperatures are expected to remain below freezing the rest of the week, keeping the 15-20 inches of snow cover from melting.
Schools
Some students and staff at Williamsburg Community Schools cut short after-school activities Monday night, Jan. 8, to get home before storm number one. The school district canceled school Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Certified teaching staff were able to work from home Wednesday,” Superintendent Chad Garber said Thursday. “It’s the end of the semester, which presents some unique circumstances.”
Teachers are finishing up classes for the end of one semester and preparing for the next, so the ability to work from home was important for them.
Garber had made no decision as of Thursday morning concerning Friday’s winter storm, but eventually classes were cancelled.
“The National Weather Service out of Davenport is the office we look to for support,” said Garber. “And they send out really regular communications in the area. So we take a lot of guidance from them.”
Garber takes into account the confidence level the NWS has in its predictive models, but he generally waits until morning to cancel school for the day, he said.
“We’ve missed three days of school now,” said Garber. “We missed a day for state football playoffs.”
Students will make up two of the missed days, attending class on built-in snow days beginning the Monday after Easter.
Iowa Valley schools were also in finals week. Students were supposed to take finals Wednesday and Thursday, but school was canceled Tuesday and Wednesday, so finals were pushed back to Thursday and Friday, said Superintendent Curt Rheigans.
That presented a problem as well, with a second storm moving in Thursday night. Rheigans said Thursday morning that he’d probably decide Thursday night whether or not to cancel school Friday.
“We cancelled school Tuesday and Wednesday,” said Belle Plaine Superintendent Chad Straight. “We have enough days built in that we don’t have to make them up, but we might anyway.”
The school board will make that decision, Straight said.
English Valleys School District also canceled school Tuesday and Wednesday and Friday.
Between storms
With a clear day Wednesday, residents were digging out before more snow fell. “I think I had to come out three times,” said Nick Martinson as he finished clearing his wide driveway on Long Street in Williamsburg Wednesday afternoon.
“I was also out here first thing in the morning [Tuesday],” Martinson said. He was trying to keep ahead of the accumulation.
Martinson’s brother came by with a snow blower, but Martinson still ended up back in the driveway with a shovel about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday before calling it a night.
Martinson said he kept asking himself why it had to be a wet snow.
As the sun broke through the clouds Wednesday afternoon, 5-year-old Cheyenne Hoeft pulled a little blue sled to her aunt’s house under the supervision of her mother, Emily Stephens. But when they got to the house, Aunt Laura Hoeft handed Cheyenne rainbow inflatable the ride down the small hills beside her home.
The hills, though small, are big enough for Cheyenne, said her mother. Usually Cheyenne’s younger brother and sister sled with them, but they were home taking a nap, said Stephens.
In Marengo, Steve Wilhelm finished clearing his sidewalks. He had shoveled half his driveway, then called a friend with a friend to plow it. “He’s got a four-wheeler,” said Wilhelm.
Wilhelm also owns the house next door and has to clear that driveway and sidewalk. “That would have taken me all day to do both of them,” he said.
Wilhelm started shoveling about 7:30 Wednesday morning, he said. The snow was wet and heavy. “I have a snow blower,” Wilhelm said. “It kept plugging up.”
Rose Strasser said she probably shouldn’t have been out shoveling Wednesday. She had a triple bypass a couple of years ago.
“I tried to be polite for the mail carrier,” Strasser said. She intended to clear one shovel width on the sidewalk in front of her house but instead cleared the entire walk on Western Avenue before turning the corner onto Highway 212.
Strasser was taking her time, she said. She’d pick up a couple of shovels full, rest, then do two or three more.
“I need the exercise,” Strasser said.
Strasser has a snowblower, she said, but she doesn’t know how to use it. She expected her son home by 4 p.m. and thought he could finish whatever she didn’t get done.
Mail carrier Robin Cameron said residents were doing a good job clearing sidewalks for her. Early Wednesday morning was not as good, but “They’re getting it,” she said Wednesday afternoon.
“It’s a lot of snow all at once,” Cameron said.
Drought
State Climatologist Justin Glisan said the snow moves the state in the right direction as far as moisture, but it’s going to need several events over the course of a year to alleviate drought conditions.
“Any moisture is beneficial,” Glisan said Thursday afternoon. Typically the ratio of snow to rain is 10-1, so 10 inches of wet snow is about an inch of precipitation.
Friday’s snow was expected to be dryer and finer, “so you won’t get as much out of it,” Glisan said.
Having snow on the ground, however, insulates it, “so we don’t have a deep frost level.” That will allow the surface to thaw faster and the moisture will seep into the ground.
Though streams are frozen now, snow melt into the streams will be beneficial. With 184 straight weeks of drought, inland streams have “bare minimum flow,” Glisan said. Snow is simply “slow release rain,” he said.
The state got a little help in December with rainfall about a half inch above the normal 1.3 inches. Wetter soils don’t freeze, Glisan said.
Iowa had the third warmest December on record.
“This is definitely the trajectory we want to be on,” said Glisan.
