Winter blasted back Sunday with winds of up to 50 mph that damaged plastic structures housing several Veishea floats and downed a light pole in front of the Memorial Union.

Wayward branches that had fallen from trees were also common around campus Sunday.

The damage was a product of an intense winter storm raging from Wyoming to Wisconsin that dipped south, bringing frigid temperatures, strong winds and snow showers.

The roller-coaster ride from winter to spring and back again isn’t uncommon this time of year, according to meteorologist Gary Forester of the National Weather Service in Johnston.

But it makes a big difference ”especially after a nice taste of spring,” Forester said Sunday.

Forester said the system was so strong, it was dragging in much colder air into Iowa.

Temperatures that were in the 60s on Saturday plunged into the 20s and 30s on Sunday. The entire state was under a wind advisory.

The weather service said the winds snapped trees and power lines late Sunday morning throughout much of the state. The Ames area got about an inch of rain.

Forester said the storm system was moving into Canada, and Iowa should see a slow moderation in temperatures this week.

”Maybe we’ll get back up there, at least in the 50s. That will sound good after this stuff,” he said.

Locally, Alpha Tau Omega suffered considerable damage when the structure housing its Veishea float, called “barns” by fraternity members, collapsed onto the float. R.J. Paulik, a member of Alpha Tau Omega, said the roof of the barn had gathered too much water.

“It seems to have fallen down. When we made it, the roof wasn’t sloped enough and all the water was collecting on top, and all the weight just kind of took it down,” Paulik said.

Despite the damage, Alpha Tau Omega’s float will be fine, he said.

“I think that all the stuff that was on it is still on it. The platform is really the only thing that was out there, and it didn’t really get damaged; the roof just kind of fell on it. The float is not really damaged, it’s the barn itself that was damaged,” Paulik said.

Fraternity members will have to rebuild the barn.

Jeff Moyer, of Delta Sigma Phi, said one side of his house’s barn was torn half off. “It will take us about a day to get back up after the wind dies down, but it won’t put us too far behind,” Moyer said.

Kent Andersen, a dispatcher for the Department of Public Safety, said wind damage was common around campus.

“We’re working on a light pole down on the west side of the Union right now. There are a few signs up in the University Village area — I think they’re construction signs — that have blown over,” he said.

In Ames, Sunday’s temperature reached a high of 43 degrees, 11 degrees below normal for this time of year.

Although there were snow flurries for most of the day, there were only traces of accumulation. “It’s not uncommon to get snow in April,” said Brad Fillbach, another meteorologist from the National Weather Service. “We usually get an average 2.4 inches for April [in Des Moines].”

Fillbach said although this week will be colder than normal, the weather will warm up next week. No snow is in the immediate future.

“At least not in the short term. After this week of fairly cold weather, it should warm back up in the six- to 10-day outlook,” he said.