Another just amazing day of cold weather, but at least it is coming
to an end for now.  Here are some unofficial notes for the cold
weather today (16 Jan 2009)...

 - The Ames airport dropped to at least -30F degrees with the COOP
   observer dropping to -33F. The ISU Ag Farm (which may or may 
   not be the 'official') for Ames got to -22F. The previous 
   record low for today was -22F.  The last -30F reading
   from Ames Ag Farm was 14 Jan 1957.

 - Spencer hit a record low for today of -28F, the previous was
   -26F.

 - Burlington tied a record low of -18F.

 - Cedar Rapids broke their record low this morning with an 
   observation of at least -27F.

 - Waterloo tied an all-time record low of -34 and easily broke
   the previous record low for today of -26F.

 - Mason City dropped to -31F, breaking the previous record of -25F.

 - Ottumwa broke their record low of -19F by dropping to -20F this
   morning.

The Monticello AWOS station recorded a low temperature of -38F, which
must be close to a record for an automated station in Iowa.  Colder 
values reported in the state were probably from manual thermometers.
I am still checking into this, so don't authoritatively quote me 
on it :)

The Coggon NWS COOP observation this morning was of -40F, this is
the first -40 reading in the state since 3 Feb 1996.