Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-03-09
IOWA IN JANUARY.

Running away from Iowa to seek
climate is very much like ENGRAVING
from Iowa to find opportunity, accord
ing to the, view of the MarshalltoWn
Times-Republican for Iowa abounds III
both. Taken by and large, the Mar"
shalltown paper says. Iowa weather is
the sort in which to raise men as
Iowa soil is the best wherein to cult.
vate prosperity, and it proves it's case
by reviewing the weather conditions
this winter as follows:
Take last winter, January, the core
and center of cold and storm in Iowa
was pleasant month. February was
even more pleasant and March comes
smiling in with the countenance OF
May. Going over the six months per-
Tod back of today who shall have the
grouchy audacity to find serious fault
with the good taste and efficiency OF
chief of the Iowa weather making de-
partment. Storms have been few and
short; Just enough storm to lend
foil to the sunshine which has been
left turned on ever since it gave the
finishing touches to glorious Iowa
October. We have walked dry shod
with the exception of few days
thrownSin to assist the transfer of the
fall stock Of ''rubbers." 1t has been
tonic winter. neither cold nor wet and
following it come March days which
and more's the pity-inspires the hid
den sap to the activity of spring.
Last January held but six days Of
zero weather and those were zero days
only in the northern portion of the
state The third was the coolest day
and the mercury ran well below zero
in the southern counties and far below
III the north But on the tenth the
maximum temperatures reported were
above fifty degrees and in many parts
the mercury stood at sixty. On the
twenty-ninth a temperature Of sixty
six was reported from Thurman. Inc
monthly mean temperature Of the state
for January as reported from ia scat
tered stations, was 2O.2, nine-tenths
per cent above the normal for Iowa.
The average monthly maximum was
fifty-three. The greatest range re-
ported was fifty-six at Storm Lake in
Buena Vista county.
The average snowfall was a little
over seven inches. The northern sec
ton took 9.5 inches; the central SIS
inches and the southern section SIS.
The greatest depth of snow was at
Rockwell City in Calhoun county
where 1t fell to depth Of twenty-five
inches and the least at Greenfield,
Adair county, where but one and one
half inches fell. The heavies fall was
on the sixteenth and seventeenth but
caused little disturbance in train
schedules. Throughout the month
stock ran on pastures most Of the time.
The roads were mainly in excellent
condition. Altogether it was just win
ter enough to make Iowa folks So
cable.
1t was a special January made
to order and for exhibit by no means.
The coolest January for twenty years
was that Of 1893 with mean tempera-
ture Of about ten degrees which is half
the normal temperature of the month
In Iowa The warmest January with
IN the same period was that Of 1851
with mean temperature of twenty-six.
The wettest January was in 1890 when
the total precipitation was two and
three-tepths inches. The dryest in 1899
when less than one-third of an inch fell.
The average January snowfall Is seven
inches. The greatest fail in twenty
years under consideration was twelve
and six-tenths inches in the winters OF
1898 and 1910, The least snowfall was
In the January of 1899 of an inch and a
half.
Iowa and Iowa winters, the Times
Republican adds, are made for living
people and contain enough of struggle
to keep the blood circulating freely.
People do not sit out of doors and
eat oranges through an Iowa January.
Neither do they freeze to death Men
get enough adversely in an Iowa win
Ter to relieve mcnotony, afford sense