Ken Scheeringa and his staff uncovered something interesting while preparing the weather forecast for the January 2015 issue of Indiana Prairie Farmer: TV and radio weathermen often get everyone excited predicting huge snows. But in reality, "big snows" are not nearly as common as you might think.
Of course, that depends on two things – your definition of a "big snow," and your location in the state. All this information can be useful if you want to enter the 2014-2015 Winter Seed Giveaway, sponsored by Indiana Prairie Farmer and Beck's Hybrids, Atlanta.
All you need to do is guess the snow totals for three sites in the state for the three-month period climatologists consider as winter. That runs from Dec. 1 through Feb. 28. The sites this year are Angola, Martinsville and Boonville. Looking for a representative site in each third of the state, Scheeringa picked these locations because they have consistent snow data going back either close to or more than 100 years.
Now would be a great time to enter. The person coming the closest to the actual total accumulation at all three sites wins six bags of Beck's seed corn for 2015. Second place gets six bags of Beck's soybeans, and third place gets six bags of Beck's wheat seed, or equivalent.
Last year's winners are not eligible. One entry per immediate household please. All decisions are final.
Find an entry form in the December 2014 Indiana Prairie Farmer or in the January issue. Or just email [email protected], with your guesses for the three locations, plus name, address, email address, phone and cell phone, and number of acres of each crop raised.
Check tomorrow to learn more about actual snowfall events in history at these sites.
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