What Does ‘I’ve Lost My Trash Can’ Really Mean in Iowa?

I bet this has happened to more people in Iowa than we know. I've had two co-workers mention that number 4 has happened to them more than once in their lives. I could also see this being a bit of an issue in plenty of states around Iowa as well. I also know I have PLENTY of neighbors who have dealt with number 3.

This should be the only metric used by Iowans from now on to determine how windy it is. Iowa doesn't need to use mph going forward anymore. All it takes to determine how windy it is outside is one of these 5 statements.

1 - Lid Flipped Open

2 - Garbage has tipped over

3 - Garbage is in the neighbor's yard

4 - Garbage is down the street

5 - I've lost my garbage bin

*For business owners we could potentially add in "I've lost the entire dumpster."

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I found this post on Iowa Chill's Instagram and I couldn't help but laugh. Anyone who's lived in or even visited Iowa for a few hours knows how windy it can be here. Almost every other day, when I drive down the alley to my house, I find someone's garbage has blown completely over, and the alley is now full of trash.

I would be willing to bet that any Iowan knows what these terms mean as far as the actual MPH of the wind.

• Lid Flipped Open is somewhere between 5-10 mph. Nothing too terrible but annoying to deal with if you find garbage coming out of the bin.
• Garbage Has Tipped Over is somewhere between 11-20 mph. It's not exactly time to sound the alarm but you hope it doesn't happen again.
• Garbage in the neighbor's yard is 21-30 mph. This is where things get a bit scary. You bring in all of your outside patio furniture and you seriously consider throwing a cinder block in your garbage bin. You can still do most of your regular outside activities but you know there will be some issues.
• Garbage down the street is 31-40 mph and at this point...you might as well stay inside. All you're going to do is get dust and sand blown into your eyes and you just hope your garbage bin doesn't hit someone's car.
• I've Lost My Garbage bin is anything where the wind is 40+. This is when the wind will be a threat to your life and property. Screw the garbage and take cover

I'm almost convinced that if I were to ask a random person at Hyvee "Hey, my garbage lid flipped open, how windy does that mean it is." I would get somewhere around 10 mph. If we ever reach "garbage down the street" or worse, you might as well stay inside and do some online shopping. Did you know there's a way to never pay full price at Amazon?

How would you classify these new wind metrics? Let us know in the comments.