516 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



SUNSHINE AND CLOUDINESS— The average number of clear 

 days was 178 ; partly cloudy, 98 ; cloudy, 90 ; as against 144 clear 

 days, 105 partly cloudy, and 116 cloudy days in 1915. 



MONTHLY SUMMARIES 



JANUARY. 



From a climatological point of view, January, 1916, in Iowa was a 

 month of much interest. Wliile the average temperature for the whole 

 state was almost exactly normal, this statement is inapplicahle in particu- 

 lar except to a narrow strip extending north and south through the central 

 portion. In the extreme western counties the month was much colder 

 than usual, but was correspondingly mild at the opposite side of the 

 state. Throughout the month sudden and marked variations in tempera- 

 ture were the rule rather than the exception, and cold waves were nu- 

 merous. An extreme instance of a rapid and sudden change to colder 

 occurred at Davenport on the 5th when the temperature fell from 55° to 1°. 

 With reference to precipitation, the month established a new record by 

 being decidedly the wettest of its name in the 27 years' climatological 

 history of the Weather Kureau in Iowa. Every station in the state re- 

 ported an excess of moisture, a fact in itself of note. A large percentage 

 of the total precipitation was in the fonn of rain and sleet. The fall of 

 sleet was the heaviest in years, amounting to about an inch in some dis- 

 tricts and was reported somewhere in the state on more than half the 

 days of the month. Moreover, several "ice" storms occurred and at one 

 time the accumulated thickness of ice on trees and other exposed objects 

 averaged three-tenths of an inch. Telegraph, telephone and lighting 

 companies suffered severely in some section-si, but as a whole the losses 

 were not so heavy as might have been expected. 



The two most striking features of the month were the cold wave of 

 the 12th-13th and a series of sleet and ice storms covering the 25th-29th. 

 The cold wave was one of the severest in recent years and, generally 

 speaking, the minimum temperatures reached were the lowest since 

 the memorable January of 1912. The 12th was one of the most inclement 

 days experienced in years, the conditions closely approaching those of 

 a typical blizzard. Transportation interests were seriously affected, 

 esipecially trolley service. In some cases businesis houses closed early in 

 order that employes might be assured of reaching their homes. On the 

 following morning the temperatures ranged from -17" at Keokuk, to -34° 

 at Inwood. The sleet and ice storms already referred to culminated an 

 the 28th and 29th in a fall of rain at temperatures below freezing. Up 

 to that time the several accretions of sleet had formed a mass varying 

 from half an inch to an inch in thickness and this was converted by the 

 freezing rain practically into a layer of ice that covered the entire land- 

 scape. Walking became a most diificult undertaking, and accidents as 

 the result of falls occurred by the hundred. In Des Moines the unusual 

 spectacle was witnessed of skating on the golf links and in country dis- 



