Iowa’s climate is often considered one of radical changes from warmth to cold, but that wasn’t the case when checking the data for 2002. State Climatologist Harry Hillaker.He says temperatures were about nine degrees warmer than normal, making it the 28th warmest year on record, while we averaged about three inches less of percipitation –making it the 44th driest year on record. He gives more details about the lack of warm temperatures.He says normal was 48-point-three degrees, and in 2002 the average was 49-point-two degrees. Hillaker says we had over three inches less than the average percipitation in 2002, including a couple of top ten record months.We had the fourth driestest November, and the driest December on record. But Hillaker says there weren’t a lot of extremes overall. He says it was a quiet year for severe weather, with just 32 tornadoes, about half of the normal total. He says the temperatures didn’t make big jumps either.Hillaker says the lowest temperature of the year came suprisling in March when the mecury hit 18-below zero in Elkader on the 4th. The highest reading was 104 in Glenwood on July 21st.
