A snow-covered rural road in Clayton County, Iowa. Photo: Jsayre64, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Winter has not really arrived in north-central Iowa yet, but the National Weather Service’s message this week was not to wait for the first nasty blast before digging out the shovel and checking the radio.
Meteorologist Chad Hahn told Mix 107.3 KIOW that a winter awareness push is meant to make people stop and think about the basics: warm clothes, sand, salt and snow shovels. He also recommended downloading a reliable weather app, or putting fresh batteries in a weather radio, and making sure households know the difference between a watch and a warning. A watch means conditions are favorable. A warning means the hazardous weather is happening or is imminent.
The seasonal outlook is a little less harsh than some Iowans might picture. KIOW reported that the state climatologist says a strong El Niño pattern could bring Iowa a warmer, wetter winter, with more rain and less snow. That is a broad climate pattern, not a promise that Clarion or Eagle Grove will skip the ice. A warmer, wetter winter can still mean slush, freezing rain and slick highways, and it can be harder on gravel roads than a clean snowstorm.
For travel, the Iowa Department of Transportation’s usual advice still applies: check 511ia.org or the 511 app for road conditions and plow locations, slow down, leave more room and give snowplows a wide berth. Wright County’s secondary roads, including the gravel that a lot of farm traffic uses, are the county’s responsibility, and they will take whatever mix of rain, freeze and snow the pattern actually delivers.
Hahn’s point was simpler than a forecast. The season is coming either way, and the cheap work, the shovels, the batteries, the full tank of gas, is easier to do on a mild November afternoon than on the first morning the wind comes in from the north.
Wes Bahl writes for Clarion News Online.