OttumwaSnomow

Im sitting at .70 past 24 hrs. And 3.1 for May so far. Its been a good spring for business! Odd thing has been lack of true warmth. 4 days over 80, but outside of those days very few in the 70s, just 3 or 4. Most 40s to 60s. Have barely been able to open windows. No ac at all yet. Still turning furnace on to take chill off. Many seed will barely germinate at all.. but cool weather things like potatoes, onions, radishes and perennial native plants look great!

Very nice 1.6" rain here in the Ottumwa Iowa area. Widespread 1 to 2 inches across the entire area. Models were exceptional. Started late but was quite the event with brutal east wind. Many have roof leaks owing to the wind. We have 5 gauges on 2 properties. Each was different with the wind I suspect

Got down to 37 my home overnight! But on way to my shop saw few small pockets of frost!

Its been a tale of 2 worlds. Here near Ottumwa I ended up with 3.2" since Aug 2018 I can only remember 3 months substantially below avg precip. After so many years driving to Desmoines and other place only to leave the dry dust for the green!

Well im quite shocked after models back off completely on good rain here. Several counties with half to 1.5 here. I have 1.0 my home.

It was 32 yesterday morning. Today it reached 88! Dewpoint all the way to 66. After so many days with highs in the 40s and 50s. A few 70s would of been nice

Im sitting at 1.97 inches for April. Its likely that April finishes below normal precip. This will make April 2021 only my 4th month significantly below avg precip since Aug 2018. Thats been a pretty good run! And throughout this period no real flooding.

Short range models were a total bust in my area. Barley a flake. Fruit is in a serious threat next 2 nights. Thurs am could be low 20s?

I had 1.30 inches on Saturday. And almost 2 inches total wed through sat. Its actually needed this wind can rapidly dry and crust the surface.

We had 62/100 yesterday & today. Ended the windy dry spell. Solid mowing mon to wed, more fri. Hope to catch the next low to keep bumping april precip toward 3 inches by months end.

Got a quick 57/100 here this eve, was much needed. Since feb 4th not a super amount of precip here. 2.6 in march and todays. Snow and ice melt kept it damp. But long periods of no rain and wind its fairly dry for mid April

Yes youre right! Went and looked our paper work. It was 2012! My memory failed me! I try to to forget 2012 it was worse summer of my life! Yes we started the business in 2008

Nice! I have kept in depth records of lawn care in this area. We currently maintain over 125 properties. Our avg first mow is april 9th. We started yesterday, more tomorrow. 2013 was our earliest start on March 30th. 2018 was our latest April 29th!! 2018 was a bitter cold and dry April. This year was our 3rd earliest since 2008. Last April was our best gross revenue April ever and we plowed 8 inches of snow in mid April 2020. I suspect 2021 will up that!

Whats your Dec, Jan, Feb melted precip totals? At one point we melted ice and snow. And we also had way higher precip totals than the official Ottumwa numbers. I really dont believe the monthly and yearly precip amounts can be trusted from what ive seen in my part of rural Iowa.