Who would think a farm boy in southern Indiana could catch fish in January by ice fishing? If you answered "yes," you probably read the Farmer's Almanac and believed it when it talked about a cold, snowy winter. If that's what they said, they were right!
Dylan Ring, David Ring's grandson, caught the fish in the picture below in a farm pond. The Rings milk cows, raise turkeys and grow crops near Huntingburg. His dad is Brent Ring. His granddad was named a Master Farmer by Indiana Prairie Farmer and the Purdue University College of Agriculture in 2013.
Ken Scheeringa, Indiana associate state climatologist, believes the cold, snowy trend will continue across Indiana through February. "Some professional forecasters are talking about a break in mid-February, but we haven't seen evidence of it yet," he says.
"The real question is how much longer this cold, snowy pattern that developed around the first of January will continue," he says. Right now he doesn't see anything concrete that will break it up in the near future.
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This winter could go down as both one of the coldest and snowiest in Indiana history. Combining data statewide, January 2014 was the fourth snowiest January on record, Scheeringa says. The winter of 1977-1978 featured the snowiest January ever.
When it comes to temperature, averaging statewide once again, January was the eighth coldest on record. The month averaged seven degrees below normal, which is a large deviation from normal in weather terms. The average temperature with highs and lows combined was 19 degrees F.
While it was cold, it didn't approach the record set in 1977. January in 1977 averaged 11 degrees, or some 15 degrees below normal. That's exceptionally cold, Scheeringa says.