Why does Des Moines smell like 'dog poo' today?

Linh Ta | The Des Moines Register

There is a distinct and, well, really unfortunate smell in Des Moines right now.

You know that scent when you walk by a dog park?

Or when you find a special surprise on your front porch?

Yeah. It smells like that.

Residents across the Des Moines metro are fired up about the smell on social media and they're letting people know that it smells a bit like a present from man's best friend.

The smell of manure wafting through Des Moines proper is really pleasant this morning — post-halloween megan (@Megan_Mowery) November 16, 2018

Des Moines: why does it smell like poop outside today? — sMEL U L8R (@melliesmel) November 16, 2018

"You are downwind from Ames," someone responded.

Ouch.

We smelt the same thing around 10 pm tonight here in Johnston. Smell of 💰? 🐷🐮 https://t.co/CrxFa8SUcs — NWS Des Moines (@NWSDesMoines) November 16, 2018

Why does downtown Des Moines smell like dog poo today? — Addie Olson (@addieolson) November 16, 2018

The reason behind the smell that leaves you wanting to stay inside with the doors locked and the alarm system activated?

City officials said it's from farm fields north and northwest of Des Moines. Calls starting coming in around 11 p.m. on Thursday, but they peaked at 6:30 a.m. on Friday.

"We did get complaints," said SuAnn Donovan, a neighborhood inspections zoning administrator for the city. "Most of them came in as manure and farm smell."

After farmers harvest their crops, they spread manure on the fields. Thursday was particularly windy in the Des Moines metro area and, well, the wind picked up that smell and blanketed it across the metro.

Other than Des Moines, Donovan said she's heard complaints from Johnston, Ankeny, Grimes, West Des Moines and Pleasant Hill.

"It's the way the wind catches it and pulls it across the city," Donovan said.

There is also a temperature inversion right now where cold air on the ground is underneath the warmer air above it, said Justin Glisan, state climatologist of Iowa.

The cold air is "stable" meaning the odor is trapped in it right now. When the sun starts coming out, the odor will go away, Glisan said.

Typically, there have to be 10 call complaints to Des Moines' 24/7 odor hotline within a six-hour period to prompt an investigation. But Donovan said there was so much interest, she decided to send people out. (Bless those souls.)

But if the smell is from outside Des Moines?

"Not much we can do about it, but it's definitely coming from farm field work," Donovan said.