It’s beginning to look a lot like … New Years?

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

After going through our fifth year in a row without a white Christmas — the longest brown stretch in more than 75 years — the weather took a more seasonal turn this week, laying several inches of snow on the ground and dipping into sub-zero temperatures.

Charles City reported receiving 3½ inches of snow through Tuesday evening. The highest area report was at North Washington in neighboring Chickasaw county, with 5 inches.

Marble Rock and New Hampton each received 4 inches, Osage received 3.3 inches, and Ionia received 3 inches.

Prior to this week, December has been exceptionally mild, even setting a new high temperature record on Dec. 15 when the mercury rose to 68 degrees. Until this week there had been only eight days this month when the high temperature didn’t get above freezing.

But the overnight low was back in negative numbers Wednesday morning and is expected to get that cold again this weekend.

The forecast is for highs in the 20s today (Thursday) and Friday, then back down to single digits Saturday and Sunday with overnight lows ranging from minus 8 to minus 12, according to the National Weather Service.