February was cold--really cold. The Climatology Bureau of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship reports that "February began very cold with below normal temperatures recorded on 16 of the first 18 days of the month. Decorah reported the lowest official temperature of the month with a -26º reading on the morning of the 5th while Estherville had the lowest wind chill reading with -36º on the morning of the 15th. Temperatures averaged 15.8º or 8.4º below normal. This ranks as the 14th coldest and 15th wettest February among 135 years of state records. This was also Iowa's coldest month since December 2000."