(Radio Iowa) – Iowans may have seen on the news how Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was hit on Monday with a foot-and-a-half of snow. Ten years ago this week, Iowans were the ones who were stunned with heavy snow in the first days of May, well over a month into spring. Meteorologist Rod Donavon, at the National Weather Service, says May of 2013 was a month of surprise weather extremes for Iowa. “Ten years ago, we had a lot of accumulating snowfall, a lot of those really wet and heavy snowfalls as well,” Donavon says. “We actually had several areas that reported power outages with that, and usually this time of year, you don’t expect travel concerns either, but it just came down so wet and heavy that we actually had some slick travel conditions as well.”

Much of the state had at least six inches of snow, while Mason City had more than nine inches, Chariton reported a foot of snow, and Osage had the deepest report at 13 inches. While there was significant snowfall, Donavon says it didn’t stick around.  “It doesn’t take too long for snow this time of year to really melt and disappear,” Donavon says. “It’s really warming up. We were actually pretty cold here in the last week as well, and then now, we’re going to be warming up as well. This time of year, usually if we get some snowfall, it doesn’t last.”

May 2013 snowstorm (Pella)

May 2013 snowstorm (Indianola)

May 2013 snowstorm (Belmond, IA)

Within a week of the big snowstorm in May of 2013, many Iowans were switching on their air conditioners, as temperatures by May 14th were already soaring to 98 degrees. (Photos courtesy the NWS in Des Moines. Click to enlarge)