Climate to change, winter story to supplant spring-like temps

Staff Report

This is new.

With a warm winter sun at his back and a squad of boys striding out warmup drills in front of him — most in T-shirts and shorts — assistant Charles City High School track coach Erik Hoefer said Tuesday’s early season practice at Comet Stadium was unusual.

“It’s the first time in my 16 years of coaching that we’ve had the track open for business, so to speak,” he said later. “Usually there are many inches of snow on the track and we feel good to have a lane or two pen for even 100 to 200 meters.

“Many times over the years we have taken a practice or two to simply shovel — using shovels with plastic blades so we keep the track healthy —enough snow to be able to have some room to run.”

On the other side of the oval, head boys track coach Ryan Rahmiller also marveled at the weather. He said he had dug out an old photo showing the team digging a trench in deep snow on the track.

This brief window of spring weather that began over the weekend is expected to come to a close Thursday and also has some watching out for flooding.

The high temperature on Friday reached 60 degrees, followed by 55 on Saturday. Sunday’s high of 61 tied the record set in 1981 for Feb. 19.

The high temperature record for February in Charles City is 65, set on Feb. 17, 1981, according to National Weather Service records.

“And temperatures like this in February?” Hoefer said. “Almost all of our meets last year were run in temps of 45 degrees or lower. It was a cold season. We want this warm weather to continue.”

Because the string of warm days melting the snowpack, the National Weather Service is cautioning about high waters the rest of this week. The Cedar River is expected to crest today at 10.5 feet in Charles City. Flood stage is 12 feet. Most area rivers are expected to stay within their banks, even though they are higher than usual for this time of year.

The bright, unseasonably toasty temperatures will all change sometime on Thursday as a winter storm begins to roll in. First there will be rain Thursday afternoon, then freezing rain and gusty winds, followed by a wintry mix and then snow on Friday with a high around 19 degrees. Turn to page 2 for a full forecast.

The weather service is warning there is a potential for a “high impact storm.”