The featured map displays the 2014 rank for average temperature this year versus past years dating back to 1893. While locations in northeastern Iowa are in the top 10 coldest, the rest of the state has not faired as poorly. The difference has been the amount of snow cover, but the "chicken and egg" paradox applies. A number of the snow producing storm systems have tracked in a NW to SE fashion and mostly missed western Iowa. These storm tracks often delineate warm and cold air masses, so the cold areas get colder with increased snowfall and the warm areas get warmer with no snow cover. The forecast for today has a brief return to very warm temperatures, so our year to date totals will be getting warmer for today at least.

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