Live cameras in Ottumwa, United States

Ottumwa is the county seat of Wapello County in southeastern Iowa, a city of about 25,500 people according to the 2020 census. The Des Moines River runs through the middle of town and splits it into northern and southern halves. The city grew from 1843 on the former camps of the Meskwaki chiefs Wapello and Appanoose, and its name comes from a Fox language word usually translated as "tumbling waters," a reference to rapids on the river. Railroads, coal and meatpacking built the local economy, and food processing remains an important employer.

Ottumwa has some unexpected fame. Radar O'Reilly of the television series M*A*S*H was written as a native of the town, and the Twin Galaxies arcade, which opened here in 1981, helped the city declare itself the "Video Game Capital of the World" the following year. A downtown diner, the Canteen Lunch in the Alley, is known for its loose-meat sandwiches.

Road and weather views in Wapello County

All of the views here come from Iowa DOT. Some are standard traffic cameras, and others belong to road-weather stations that measure air and pavement temperature, wind and moisture alongside the picture. A newer snapshot replaces each one every few minutes. U.S. Route 34 and Iowa Highway 149 serve the city itself, while U.S. Route 63 now runs on a bypass around it, part of a four-lane corridor across the region. In winter these cameras are the quickest way to see whether roads are snow-covered or clear before a drive.

The city is on Central Time and switches to daylight saving time from March until early November. The climate is humid continental, with hot, sticky summers, thunderstorms in spring and early summer, and cold, snowy winters. June sunsets come after half past eight; by late December it is dark before five.

About fifteen miles to the southeast, the small town of Eldon keeps the farmhouse with the Gothic window that Grant Wood painted behind the couple in American Gothic. Lake Wapello State Park and the river towns of the Des Moines valley are also within an easy drive.

Sources: Ottumwa, Iowa - Wikipedia · Iowa 511.