Snow, wind buries NE Iowa

Weather cancels flights, joins string of weather events nation-wide

By Kate Hayden khayden@charlescitypress.com

Monday was a day to be grateful for Christmas socks and bulky scarves as snow buried Charles City and much of the state. Starting at 9 a.m., snow steadily dropped and wind increased, encouraging City Administrator Steve Diers to declare a snow emergency until noon Tuesday. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning that was to last until 6 a.m. today. The snow shut down the Northeast Iowa Regional Airport, just north of town.

“There’s no snow total because the wind’s blowing so hard,” airport manager Bill Kyle said. “There’s a quarter of a mile visibility. The runway is clear but you just can’t find it… you can’t see the land.” Kyle estimates about six inches had fallen by 3:30 p.m., but wind gusts reaching upwards of 40 miles per hour kept snow swirling across the land. Still, Kyle doesn’t expect the airport to remain closed for long.

“As soon as the snow goes away, we’ll be open tomorrow,” Kyle said.

The last major snowstorm to hit Charles City came Nov. 20, just a week before Thanksgiving, and dropped 9.6 inches of snowfall by 2:30 a.m. Previously, there had been no snow accumulation yet this winter, according to the National Weather Service.

Monday’s storm came along with a string of severe weather across the nation, with ice knocking out power for about 175,000 people in Oklahoma and extended flooding throughout the southern United States. Northeast Iowa expected to see in total between eight to 12 inches of snow from Mason City to the Wisconsin border throughout the evening, although snow was expected to stop after midnight.