Cooler Summer In Iowa Affects Farmers, Utilities, Swimming Pools

CEDAR RAPIDS — Unless you are selling ice, managing a pool or growing tomatoes, you probably like Iowa’s no-sweat summer.Chronic weather critics, who’ve been deprived of “too hot, too humid” complaints, might find fault with the Indian summer-like conditions that have prevailed since late June.But electricity consumers, farmers and people who work and play outdoors find the summer of 2014 a refreshing change of pace.Iowa’s July temperature averaged 69 degrees — 4.6 degrees below normal — ranking it as the fifth-coolest July among 142 years of state records, and that trend has continued.