Jim Field visits with Freese-Notis Meteorologist Dan Hicks about the Labor Day Weekend weather, the end of the growing season and the winter forecast.
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Jim Field visits with Freese-Notis Meteorologist Dan Hicks about the Labor Day Weekend weather, the end of the growing season and the winter forecast.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (19.9MB)
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(Radio Iowa) — A Mason City man is in jail after authorities allegedly find more than a pound of methamphetamine in a storage unit. The Cerro Gordo County Sheriff’s Department says they executed a search warrant based on an ongoing investigation at two storage lockers at 630 6th Southwest in Mason City. Authorities allegedly found more than a pound of suspected meth with a street value of more than $20,000, as well as a large sum of money. 59-year-old Mark Hobbs was charged with possession of meth with the intent to deliver and failure to affix a drug tax stamp.
He’s currently being held in the Cerro Gordo County Jail on $20,000 bond. Hobbs was arrested in April for allegedly stealing Ritchie Valens memorabilia during the Winter Dance Party in Clear Lake.
The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Jim Field.
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FAIRFIELD, Iowa (AP) — A former police officer accused of stealing painkillers from a southeastern Iowa veterinary clinic has been given five years of probation. Jefferson County District Court records say 31-year-old Ryan Mills was fined $1,000 and given a deferred judgment at his sentencing Friday. Under deferred judgments, convictions can to be removed from court records if the convicted fulfill their probation terms. Mills had pleaded guilty to burglary.
A criminal complaint says Mills was caught stealing 57 tablets of Tramadol from The Veterinary Clinic in Fairfield before business hours on Jan. 1. Later he admitted entering the clinic on several occasions to steal the opioids from a medicine cabinet. Tramadol is a controlled narcotic used to treat moderate to severe pain and is highly addictive.
Mills was a police officer in Fairfield.
The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a virus has killed hundreds of deer in south-central Iowa. The Iowa Natural Resources Department says the outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease is concentrated in and near Warren County. The disease is spread by female midges that feed on the dead animals. The disease causes high fever in deer. The cell membranes in their hearts, lungs and diaphragms weaken and burst. The department says the disease kills animals every year but not usually at the rate of this outbreak.
The disease outbreak remains active until rain disperses the deer, wind disperses the midges or a heavy frost kills them. Experts say epizootic hemorrhagic disease has not been shown to affect people.
Today: Mostly sunny. High 78. W @ 10-15 mph.
Tonight:Partly cloudy w/a chance of showers late. Low 60. SW @ 5-10.
Tomorrow: Isolated morning showers; P/Cldy. High 83. SW-NW @ 10-20.
Friday: Mo. Cldy w/a chance of showers. High 75.
Saturday: Mo. Cldy w/a chance of showers. High 72.
Yesterday’s High in Atlantic was 76. Our Low this morning was 52. Last year on this date our High was 81 and the Low was 51. The record High in Atlantic on this date was 100 in 1984. The Record Low was 35 in 1967.
(Radio Iowa) — The results of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources survey show there will be plenty of pheasants available when the season opens in October. D-N-R wildlife biologist Todd Bogenschutz, oversees the survey and says the numbers didn’t crater despite some rough winter and spring weather. “Yeah they are down a little — but I think it could have been a lot worse. I think we even had a couple regions that showed a slight uptick,” Bogenschutz says.
The August roadside survey showed an average of 17 pheasants per 30 mile route, down from 21 per route last year. But he says two areas caused the overall average to drop. “The south-central and south-east had a lot of ice down there last year and of course they had an abundance of rain in May. So the counts are way down in those two regions — 40 to 50 percent — and that kind of drove our overall statewide number,” Bogenschutz says. “The rest of the numbers are up a little, down a little, none of them significant.”
The west-central region saw an 18 percent increase in pheasants and the north-central region saw a 14 percent increase. He says seeing the roadside count numbers close to last year is a win for hunters. “Last year was our best year in ten years — so that’s pretty good I think,” Bogenschutz says. The pheasant numbers have been building back up after several years of decline brought on by bad weather. While the birds will be available, he says the hunting conditions are going to make it more difficult to find them. “Because crop planting was so late this year there it’s probably a high likelihood on our opener that most of the crops are going to be standing. And that’s going to make for a tougher opener because bills will have a lot of cropland they will be able to move off to and basically you won’t be able to hunt them,” Bogenschutz explains.
He says acres of standing corn make a great place for birds to hide. “All the birds — especially when the season opens at the end of October — I mean they are using the crop fields as things are maturing they are starting to use them as a food source and are in them anyway. And a little bit of hunting pressure and they are going to figure out quick that’s the place to be so they won’t be bothered,” Bogenschutz says. “I fully expect because of how far behind the planting season was this year we’re going to have a lot of crops the opener.”
He expects hunters to take around 200-thousand roosters again this year — but says that could be much higher if more hunters went out. “Fifteen years ago we had 100-thousand hunters and last year we barely broke 50 (thousand). Our harvest is partly driven by how many guys get out there and chase them. Our hunter numbers have been slowly creeping back up, they had gotten down into the 40-thousand range,” Bogenschutz says. He says the number of birds taken could more than double if more hunters hit the fields. “If we had the hunters we had 15 years ago I think our harvest last year would have been half a million. I think the birds were there,” Bogenschutz says.
The pheasant season will open up on October 26th.
(Radio Iowa) — The new edition of the Farmers’ Almanac predicts a freezing, frosty winter is ahead for Iowa and the rest of the Midwest. Sandi Duncan, the publication’s managing editor, says they’re calling for above-normal snowfall and below-normal temperatures.Duncan says, “We’re calling this winter a ‘polarcoaster’ winter because we think there’s going to be quite a few thrills and chills up and down the thermometer this winter.”
The Almanac is forecasting what it calls a “memorable” storm that will produce “hefty snows” for the region between January 20th and 23rd, followed by bitter cold as low as 40-below zero. “We’re looking at the coldest outbreak of the season to be at the end of January and the beginning of February,” Duncan says. “Overall, in your region we’re calling for a frigid and snowy winter.” This past spring was lousy for many farmers in the region, with prolonged cold, wet weather and widespread flooding. The Almanac is predicting essentially a repeat for next spring. “We do see a very slow start to spring once again with chilly, wet conditions hanging on into April,” Duncan says. “The good news is, we also have a summer forecast, and we see scorching temperatures with not the greatest but near-normal precipitation. Hopefully, things will even out a little bit as summer continues to take hold in 2020.”
Meteorologists at the National Weather Service often put little stock in forecasts more than a few weeks out, but Duncan notes the Farmers’ Almanac has been predicting the weather for -longer- than the National Weather Service. The Almanac’s forecasts extend out from six to 16 months and they’re based on a formula established two centuries ago. “It was set on a bunch of rules that we’ve altered slightly but we still consider a lot of the rules that our founding editor in 1818, we still follow them,” Duncan says. “They are rules that talk about sunspot activity, tidal action, the Moon, the position of the planets. They apply them to different weather conditions and they’ve been doing a pretty good job for us.”
She says those who follow the publication’s long-range outlooks say they’re 80-to-85-percent accurate.