“If you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes.”
 Mark Twain

Well this is Iowa, and while it may take a day for the weather to change, it’s not an exaggeration.  On May 1st, Iowa farmers continued doing field work and planting, like Brad Rutherford, (top photo) planting beans just east of Marshalltown. On Thursday, May 2nd, Dennis O’Mara, of Slater, (bottom photo) was sidelined by heavy snow north of Madrid. And May 2nd is now in the record books as the largest May snowfall in Iowa and much of the Upper Midwest. It’s reported as much as 18 inches of snow was dumped on southern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. What a difference a day has made indeed.

Words and photos by Gary Fandel, photographer/writer for Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.