Winter hits Iowa in record amounts

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Everyone who has lived in Iowa has heard the saying, “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” However, this saying doesn’t seem to apply this winter season.

As of Feb. 1, an average of 31 inches of snow had fallen across the state of Iowa. That is more than half of the 1961-1962 record average of 59 inches statewide.

The Des Moines and Indianola area has reported a record 62.3 inches of total snowfall as of Feb. 28. That blows the 1885-1886 record of 50.2 inches out of the snow bank.

Jeff Wagner, interim director of campus services and grounds manager, said the amount of snow was a problem this year.

“The snowfall this winter has been relentless,” Wagner said. “It has been very difficult to keep everything clear when it snowed every two to three days. We simply run out of places to put it.”

Due to the lack of space for the plowed snow, Campus Service has had to resort to using some outside help.

“On three occasions, we had an outside company haul snow piles out of our parking lots in order to free up parking spaces and create more stockpile space in case we received additional snowfall,” Wagner said.

This winter’s weather took Campus Services by surprise and they had to enlist help from other campus employees. Wagner hopes to be better prepared for harsh winters like this one in the future.

“We pulled all of our resources together and received additional help from the maintenance and custodial employees,” Wagner said. “They all did a great job. We are currently evaluating our snow removal equipment and exploring several options that would allow us to be prepared, should we experience another extremely harsh winter.”

Simpson students agree that the weather this winter was a bad one.On a scale of one to 10, 10 being the worst, senior Casey Dunning gave this winter an eight.

“This has been by far the worst winter I’ve seen at Simpson College,” Dunning said.

Junior Molly Sabers rated this winter between a nine and a 10 and commented on the vast amount of snow that caused snow days.

“It’s just crazy how there is so much snow, and we got so many big storms,” Sabers said. “Really, to have two days of classes cancelled is unheard of in a year. Usually in college, you hardly have any cancellations. It was definitely an interesting winter.”

Sabers made it clear she is ready to see the snow go.

“I am definitely excited for the warm weather after such a long winter,” Sabers said. “I am just ready to be around campus and see grass again and not worry about slipping and falling on the ice or anything like that. I am definitely ready to enjoy the sun and warm temperatures hopefully soon.”

Freshman Mariah Baumgartner-Morris is also ready to get rid of the snow.

“(Winter) is nice when it first arrives but there comes a time when you are ready to see it go,” Baumgartner-Morris said.