Snow arrives too late for White Christmas

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

No White Christmas, but perhaps it will be a White New Year.

Mother Nature waited until a few days after Christmas to decorate Charles City this year, as 1-2 inches of snow fell upon the area in the Monday early morning hours.

Before Monday’s light snowfall, Charles City had received 4½ inches of snow this fall and winter, less than half the amount that is considered normal. Most of that snow came in late November and early December, and had melted off by Christmas.

The National Weather Service issued a Winter Weather Advisory for the region through midnight Monday evening, as additional accumulations of 1-3 inches were expected with wind gusts as high as 35 miles per hour blowing the snow around, causing some drifting and making travel difficult at times. The advisory included portions north central and northeast Iowa, southeast Minnesota and southwest Wisconsin.

Motorists were advised to plan on slippery road conditions Monday evening and Tuesday morning.

More precipitation could be on the way New Year’s Day and beyond. Another round of accumulating snow looks possible from Thursday night into Friday night this week, according to the NWS. Due to uncertainties in the track of this system, it was too early predict snow amounts as of Monday.

The average snow amount through this time of the year in Charles City is 10.3 inches. Winter also got off to a slow start last year, but came on strong, as Charles City received above average snowfall in January, and February went on to see 33 inches of snow — the most snow for the area during a month in recorded history.