Category Archives: Iowa Miscellaneous

May 02

A historic snow day for these schools

Posted on Thursday, May 2, 2013, at 9:51 AM by Jeff

This picture shouldn’t have a May 2 date-stamp. More reports here. Let’s hope this week of weather is a real drought-buster. Based on TV stations’ websites, there are multiple schools that cancelled classes today because of snow. Because this is historic, … Continue reading →

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Apr 30

May in Iowa (wait, what?)

Posted on Tuesday, April 30, 2013, at 12:16 PM by Jeff

Now Mother Nature is just throwing days in a blender and then stringing them together. Here’s the current forecast for Goldfield. The phrases “New snow accumulation of around an inch possible” and “May 2” should never be part of the … Continue reading →

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Apr 27

Kossuth County Area Schools and Rural Iowa’s Population Collapse

Posted on Saturday, April 27, 2013, at 7:41 PM by Jeff

As population and school enrollments in rural Iowa keep shrinking, many districts are finding it increasing difficult to stay afloat. One place this change is keenly being felt is in north-central Iowa. Rather than make this essay a blog post, … Continue reading →

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Apr 19

Mmm…pi

Posted on Friday, April 19, 2013, at 10:20 AM by Jeff

Des Moines got a record 3.14 inches of rain for April 17 on Wednesday. To add a little perspective on this, its wettest April day ever was April 28, 1974 with 3.8 inches.

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Apr 12

Getting wetter

Posted on Friday, April 12, 2013, at 2:44 PM by Jeff

Much of Tama County has now been upgraded to “abnormally dry” while farther east, the drought is “over” inasmuch as there are “normal conditions.” This week’s rain will shrink the red and orange areas even more.

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Apr 12

142 Addisons, 103 Bentleys(?!), 67 Jaxons, 60 Nevaehs, 33 Makennas

Posted on Friday, April 12, 2013, at 1:18 AM by Jeff

…and only five Melissas and five Jeffreys were born in Iowa in 2011. A bunch of other names in the Class of 2000 were also in single digits.

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Apr 10

April in Iowa, continued

Posted on Wednesday, April 10, 2013, at 1:03 AM by Jeff

At 6 PM Tuesday, Remsen was simultaneously under a severe thunderstorm warning, ice storm warning, and winter storm watch. The Register has more coverage of the weird weather. Thursday’s forecast has shifted to that most unpleasant of conditions, “wintry mix”.

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Apr 08

April in Iowa

Posted on Monday, April 8, 2013, at 12:13 PM by Jeff

Perfect sense. Remember, winter isn’t over until the second weekend of April.  

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Apr 06

Everything except an Olive Garden

Posted on Saturday, April 6, 2013, at 1:57 PM by Jeff

Altoona is currently in the midst of opening up a subdivision called Tuscan Estates — “a quiet country oasis”. (City regulation PDF) The development is near subdivisions or subsets of the subdivision called Tuscany and Tuscany Villas on, what else, Tuscany … Continue reading →

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Apr 02

What is it with all these special elections?

Posted on Tuesday, April 2, 2013, at 1:14 PM by Jeff

On the first Tuesday after the first Monday (unless noted), Iowa looooves special elections this year. The Secretary of State lists seven allowable scheduled dates, and that doesn’t include votes that must be held within a certain number of days … Continue reading →

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