The Chris Moeller Archives

A rationalist explains Iowa's weather

There's an old bon mot floating about that the state of Iowa always gets hit with a blizzard of snow just before the Girls' High School Basketball Tournament. "Seems like every year it happens," people say whenever we get measurable snow before or during the State Tournament.

Forget that the tourney, beginning to end, is six days long (and if we add in the advancing weekend, it's eight) and that the month of March averages about five inches of accumulative snowfall in Des Moines each year-- more than half of it concentrated, presumably in the earlier, more wintry part of the month. No, it has to be some sort of divine plan, a wink from our heavenly father above, if the ground turns white.

Except that when it doesn't snow that week during a given year, nobody notices. Des Moines and the state of Iowa are currently moving into their second full-week without snow. Despite cloud after cloud and snow upon snow all winter long, high temps cranked up into the 40s early this week-- the best weather to date this season-- even while teams and fans gathered downtown for some roundball action. And we're headed into the 50s tomorrow and Saturday, just in time for the championship games.

No snow. Nada. Zilch.

Make a mental note of it so you won't sound like an idiot next year.

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Before Jim Bunning was a reality-detached crank in the U.S. Senate, he was labor pioneer in the world of Major League Baseball.

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As a teenager, when Chuck Berry was famously up in the morning and out to school, the teacher teaching the golden rule, he was attending Sumner High in North St. Louis. Now, at 83 years old, he's headlining the school's annual Alumni Roundup.

Sumner grads also include Arthur Ashe, Grace Bumbry, Dick Gregory, Robert Guillaume, Bobby McFerrin, Tina Turner, and Tuskegee Airman Wendall Pruitt. Ring, ring goes the bell.

posted by CM @ 8:27 PM