Oskaloosan’s Struggle Against Coldest Temperatures In Decades

Record low temperatures were described as life threatening, and many area businesses and all schools were closed during the polar vortex.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The people of Oskaloosa and Mahaska County struggled their way past days of some of the coldest temperatures to hit the area since the mid 1960’s.

Lows in Oskaloosa dipped to a -23 degrees and the thermometer struggled to get past the break even point of 0 degrees.

A wind chill warning was in effect for the area until 6 am on January 31st, as the wind chill dipped as low as -44 degrees.

For the Oskaloosa and area school districts, getting school in session proved to be a real challenge.

For the second week in a row, students were at home more than at school, as the bitter cold had administration cancelling classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

The United States Post Office called off mail delivery due to the record setting cold.

According to Mahaska County Emergency Manager Jamey Robinson, a warming shelter was opened for residents without heat. There was no users of the shelter, and there were no reported injuries as a result of the extreme cold.

Chad Coon, General Manager of the Oskaloosa Water Department, said there was a minimal increase in the amount of water the department produced. Many residents turned their fawcets on, letting them drip through the night to keep pipes from freezing.

The water system itself didn’t suffer any breaks from the cold to this point, as the snow storms from the previous weeks had provided a layer of insulation, helping to keep the frost level higher.

By Saturday, the temperatures had climbed into the 40’s, and on Sunday, the forcast is for a high near 50 degrees, making a near 80 degree change during the week.

Cheyanne Bruns of Bussey tosses hot water into the air during the arctic air this past week. (submitted photo)

The forecast for the upcoming weeks shows that the cold weather will return, with a high temperature of 21 degrees predicted on Friday.

The Oskaloosa School District will start making up days lost to weather cancellations. February 15 was a scheduled no school day for the Oskaloosa School System, but the day off is now a school day. The district will publish a make up schedule in the next week.

Martha Gabel told Oskaloosa News, “Stayed in most of the time, not a winter person. Hate the cold!”

The cold weather is rough on vehicles, as described by Joe Kaskadden who shared, “Monday going to work and the hard tonneau cover blew off my truck. Ripped the hinges right out.”

For some like Ron Brown II, the weather wasn’t a big deal. “It didn’t, because I’m from Iowa. Left fawcett’s running like I should, dressed in layers and covered exposed skin, warmed up the truck before leaving for work, and went about my merry business like usual.”

And as the weather started to warm up, there were other troubles and shared by Erin Marie. “After it warmed up, my apartment partially flooded from all the snow melting. The actual cold part didn’t impact me much.”