Being prepared for winter weather


Image taken after a snowfall at Taft Elementary in Jan. of 2023. Independent photo.

By KYLIE PORTZ
On March 4, 1909, a snow-storm in Washington D.C. prevented incumbent President Willian Howard Taft from taking the oath of office outside. Instead, the 27th president of the United States would take the oath indoors, becoming the first American President to do so since An-drew Jackson.

A few days later, further west, one of the heaviest snowfalls in Iowa history would be recorded in Humboldt County.

According to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information database, on March 7, 1909, a whopping 20 inches of snow was record-ed in Humboldt County.

The Humboldt Republican Newspaper reported on this event in the March 12, 1909 issue.

The headline read, “Gigantic Snow Fall Covers Old Iowa” accompanied by the subheads “Great fall of the ‘Beautiful’ in good old Iowa Monday and Tuesday” and “Prospects for the highest floods in years – Greatest snow fall in North-western Iowa in Twenty Years.”

The article read as follows, “Sunday the snow began to fall in this portion of Iowa, and all-day Monday and Tuesday it kept at it. It was what is known as a wet snow. Too. Literally a blanket of water, it covered the fields and buildings like a flood. Falling on human beings or stock it largely melted as it fell, but on the earth, it formed a mantle a foot in depth. The oldest citizen wagged his head knowing-ly, and all agreed that there would be some “floods” when this gigantic quantity of dampness began to move. If this snow goes off with a rain the prospects are that this portion of Iowa will know floods such as it has not experienced in years. Our readers at a distance should not believe from this that Iowa is experiencing an old-fashioned blizzard. The air is warm, and the temperature is above the freezing point.”

Iowans are no strangers to snow. According to the nation-al Weather Service, Iowa sees anywhere from 18-42 inches of snowfall annually across the state. It is important to have a plan in case severe winter weather strikes.

Ways to stay informed

In 2025, there are multiple ways to stay informed and aware of severe weather be-fore it strikes.

One way to stay in-formed in the event of severe weather is by tuning in to The National Weather Service website (https://www.weather.gov/dmx/) to monitor the radar and see if severe weather is expected in your area.

It is also helpful to monitor the road conditions using Iowa 511. The 511 websites can be viewed using any mobile de-vice at www.511.org. Or you can call the telephone service number 511 (within Iowa) or 800-288-1047 (nationwide) for an interactive, voice activated traffic information system. You can also find the app in both the App Store and Google Play.

Humboldt County Emergency Management Association Director, Kye Bissell recommends another service for staying informed.

“The first thing that I would want people to do is to down-load Alert Iowa. The National Weather Service, myself, will put on alerts for those weather events that are coming up.” Bissell said. “We’ll start making those weather events known several days in advance that this is coming.”

You can sign up for Alert Iowa online at alert.iowa.gov to receive weather updates directly from state and local authorities.

Read the full story in this week's issue of the Humboldt Independent.

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