If it smells like poop, it’s probably poop, Iowans learn when a stench fills the air

People who live in farm country get used to all kinds of rural smells in the air.

Eau de poo-fume is one.

But on Friday, a super-stink sent people across central Iowa scurrying to social media to ask: What’s that smell?

The Des Moines Register attempted to be graceful about the stench, calling it a “really unfortunate smell in Des Moines right now.”

People could smell it indoors.

“It smells in our studio!” complained Sabrina Ahmed, one of the hosts of “Good Morning, Iowa” on Local 5 News in West Des Moines.

On Twitter, KCCI TV station in Des Moines tweeted a picture of a skunk.

The Register simply tweeted “it’s bad” with a poop emoji.

Playing off the old adage “you smelt it you dealt it,” the city of Des Moines tweeted that it wasn’t the source of the smell after people lit up the city’s Odor Hotline.

Yes, the city has an odor hotline, staffed 24/7, seven days a week, according to its website.

City officials told the Register that the odious odor was wafting over the area from farm fields north of town, where farmers were spreading manure on their fields, as they do.

The complaints started around 11 p.m. on Thursday and fired up early Friday morning, the newspaper reported.

The winds crossing over central Iowa on Friday spread the stink faster than you could say “hand me a gas mask.”

“The wind just kinda grabbed the smell from the farms northwest of Des Moines and sent it into town,” Local 5 meteorologist Taylor Kanost explained on air to his colleague, Ahmed.

Said the weather guy: “Iowa problems.”