A 99 degree change in temperature in a matter of hours!

From this story at KWWL.com:

Passengers flying in to Cedar Rapids Thursday knew they were in for a rude awakening.

"It was funny because when we got on the plane the pilot was like, yeah, we'll be landing in Cedar Rapids at 11:00 and it's gonna be negative 30," said Mount Mercy student Jimmy Scroggins. "And I was just like 'Negative thirty'!"

Scroggins was returning from the 70-degree sunshine of Phoenix for the spring semester at Mount Mercy.

The story is about Cedar Rapids (less than an hour south of here) experiencing their coldest day ever, today. The actual temperature was -29º. Can you imagine leaving a place that is 70º and arriving in another place that is -29º!!!

If global warming is really man-made...

...then I wish those guys would get to work!

Ha ha! (OK, the above comment was a joke! No need for any political comments here...) :)

That's the actual temperature here in Waterloo, Iowa, today at 7am. -23ºF (-30ºC)! But no worries... We're gonna warm up today to a toasty high of -6ºF (-21ºC)! The image is of my Yahoo! Weather Widget, and it's set against my desktop's background pic --- a tiny tropical island. :)

If you don't like the weather in Iowa...

They say if you don't like the weather in Iowa, just wait 'cause it'll soon be different. Tru dat.

On Monday of this week, I drove by and saw some of my friends sitting on their front porch in shorts and t-shirts - probably sipping on some nice cold iced tea. The temperature was in the upper 70's. At the time I thought about stopping and taking a photo.

Now I really wish I would've taken that pic, because then I'd be able to contrast Monday's weather with what we woke up to on Friday morning. From upper 70's to lower 30's - and a nice layer of snow on the grass and trees. (The pavement is not yet cold enough for snow to stick). The snow was nice and wet - perfect for snowballs! The kids really had some fun before headnig off to school. But within hours, while it was still flurrying and even snowing heavier at times, it had all melted off of the ground. At least we're not in the Dakotas. 40 inches of snow, from what I hear!

Tornado aftermath pics

My wife just sent this link that she received from someone at work. There are several pics and a few YouTube videos from Parkersburg, Iowa, after the EF5-rated tornado (the strongest in Iowa in 32 years) that destroyed 1/3 of the town. I drove around the outskirts of a nearby town, New Hartford, yesterday and it looked like a war zone. I had never seen such a sight.

You know you're in IOWA when...

...it's 14º and someone says to you, "Sure is warmer today, isn't it!" (and they're serious). :)

Yesterday morning when the kids walked to school at 8:30am it was 4º. This morning when I walked into a convenience store a little after 7am (and interacted with the owner, who's the one who made the comment about it being warmer) , it was a balmy 14º! Get out the shorts and tank tops! (For my foreign friends, we're talking fahrenheit degrees here. 14º and 4ºF = -10 and -15ºC respectively).

Actually I think it's so cold because of all the POLITICIANS who are camped out in our state! It should warm up considerably after the "Hawkeye Cauci" (the Iowa Caucuses) are over and done with after January 3.

And now that I think about it... perhaps 14º seems warm to the store owner because he's actually a former state senator. ;)

Ice Ice Baby - Won't You Be My Neighbor

First... What a strange and exhausting day today has been. I think I'll vent about it!
Then... Videos below!

Today has been a strange and exhausting day! A major ice storm has plastered most of Iowa, and I had the "pleasure" of driving in it for several hours for my job. I knew I was in for it when the forecast had been calling for the ice advisory to last from 6am to 3pm, and my job goes from 7am to 3:30pm! The winter weather advisory actually lasts through tomorrow morning, but the ice/sleet/snow mixture was pretty much during the hours of my job.

The day didn't start out too bad. Yesterday evening, with perfectly dry roads, I did some planning and took care of some stuff so I wouldn't have to do it today. So I set out ahead of schedule, making my first stop in my own vehicle. I had called the hospital to make sure they didn't have anything I needed to bring to my first stop, and they told me there was nothing. I made that first stop and then went to the hospital to drop some things off. It's usually a 20 minute drive, but today it was more like 35 minutes, which I expected due to the weather. But then the trouble started. At the hospital, they proceeded to tell me that there was indeed something that needed to go to that first stop! One of the overnight people had missed it, so when I had called, no one knew about it.

So I went to the garage to get a van I usually use on the weekends. By this time it was "icing" pretty good, and I set off on the highway to go back to my first stop. Pretty soon I found my windshield becoming very iced-over, and I wondered why that was happening so quickly. Turns out the heater wasn't working in this van!

Snap!

I had to drive all the way back to the garage to get another van, stopping a couple of times to scrape ice off the windshield. After starting out "ahead," I was now way behind and the forecast was calling for ice all day.

(Iowa has every sort of weather you can imagine. I really, really like having all the seasons, and even though the winters can make my job a little tough, I still really like it. However... days like this can be very irritating!)

So I got in another van that I don't normally drive, and I got the spare key out of the locker to keep in my pocket just in case. In fact, I put the 'regular' key (with buttons to automatically lock and unlock the doors) in my pocket so I could keep the van running all day and keep it locked while I stopped at my places for a few minutes at a time. Well, I stuck the regular key in the van and backed out of the garage. I put the van with the bad heater in the garage and I put my own car in the garage to keep it from getting ice build-up on it. I got back in the new van and started it, and it died right away. I started it again, and it died. And a third time.

MAN! What's UP today??? It was one of those, "GOD, WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME!" moments. ;) Back in the day I would've thought He was perhaps punishing me for something. But today I know that sometimes stuff just happens! Well anyway, fortunately I remembered hearing someone a few years ago talk about how the spare key only serves to lock and unlock the vehicle but won't let you drive it. I didn't understand how I was able to back it out of the garage, but I decided to try the other key anyway. Vrooooom.

Ahhhh! At last I could get going. And this is where my 3 hour, 80 mile journey began. My first stop was about 40 miles from the hospital. It was very slow-going. Hey, maybe God's really trying to settle me in this "slow cook" thing. Haha! I arrived at this nursing home, and when I came out of the building, the sleet/ice was still coming down pretty good and someone shouted over to me... "Either they pay you really good money or you're CRAZY!" It's definitely not the first one, and I smiled and told the guy I'm just crazy I guess! And that's when I decided that I would call ahead and ask some of my people if they really needed me today, and I was able to "get out of" a lot of driving. Most Saturdays I drive anywhere from 150 to 200 miles.

Man, I tell ya, the ice did not let up for a minute today! And after it had accumulated a lot, and there had been sort of an ice/snow mixture in the early afternoon, the roads became slightly less slick, but yet the accumulated parts had hardened and you pretty much had to stay in the set of tire tracks that had formed in each lane. If you tried to switch lanes, you were quickly pulled back into your lane! It was very frustrating. On a certain four lane road, I tried to slow down to change lanes, but that wouldn't give me enough "power" to get over the rut. So I would speed up, but that greatly increased the risk of going off the road!

I have to say... yes I am sort of crazy because I do get somewhat of a rush out of this winter weather driving. But days like today can really take a toll on me mentally, with the various snafus as well as the constant decision making involved with navigating icy roads, as well as physically. I know my arms, back and legs will be feeling it in the morning. You just don't realize how many muscles you use when you drive, and how the strenuous driving really wears them out!

Even though I'm venting quite a bit here, I was able to keep a humorous mind about it all, as I usually do. I would walk in my places singing "Ice Ice Baby" or Mr. Rogers "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood..." and I would give people reports of nice sunny weather and great driving conditions outside.

But all in all... I'm glad the day is over!

Time to chill and relax to Vanilla Ice...


Jim Carrey - 'White White Baby'


I used to have this record.
Mister Rogers!