Relocating to Iowa City? When it Comes to the Weather - Expect the Unexpected

Relocating to Iowa City? You probably want to know what awaits you when it comes to the weather.


When I was relocating to the Iowa City area 10 years ago the weather definitely factored into the decision making process. In fact knowing something about the weather impacted many of the details on the house we built, including the 4 car garage. Yep, I guess you can see I'm a planner. I don't leave a whole lot to chance when it comes to major decisions in my life!


Now when I got up this morning I didn't know I would be writing this post... Then I looked out of the window and saw the snow flurries and decided, hmm... that's worth writing about - It's definitely not typical to see snow in October around here!

I started thinking and wondered what's typical anyway? We had the flood in 2008 and some areas still haven't totally recovered from that. Then we had an unusually cold winter with more snow than we're used to, followed by a rainy spring and summer that was more what I expect in London or Hamburg than I do here. And here we are in autumn, looking like we're heading for winter without skipping a beat. So much for typical!

Now of course, there's a common saying by the locals around here that if you don't like the weather in Iowa, then wait five minutes...

So what might be classed as "typical" anyway? Iowa is pretty flat, so the weather just blows on through - and I do mean blow! The wind here definitely takes it up a notch in comparison to what I was used to on the coast. Iowa City is in the south eastern part of Iowa, so it's generally milder here than in the north. We have hot, humid summers and cold winters, but not as much snow as you might expect in the Midwest. The less snow bit is a blessing and a curse, because it means in winter the area comes to a standstill after a heavy snowstorm, because none of us are used to driving in the snow.

Of course Iowa gets its fair share of tornadoes too and a good portion of Iowa is part of Tornado Alley. If you look at the map though, you'll see that south eastern Iowa is not technically part of that area. That doesn't mean we get off scot-free, but in the 10 years I've lived here we only had one touch down in downtown Iowa City. I live in Coralville, about three miles from where it touched town and it didn't impact us at all. It did cause some serious damage in downtown Iowa City, but there was no loss of life - and that's much more important to talk about.

So if you're relocating to the Iowa City area, what do you take away from this? Come prepared to expect the unexpected... Oh and if you don't like the weather when you get here, wait five minutes...