Iowans Sunburn…A Lot

I admit, because I'm an indoor kid, I don't sunburn much.  When I AM outside, I'm terrible about wearing sunblock...despite the fact that having had a sunburn on my shaved head, I'm not in a hurry to repeat that experience.  Turns out, however, I am not alone in my sunscreen failings.  There's a new ranking of states that sunburn the most and Iowa is the seventh highest sunburned state in the country.

Now, let's get one thing straight from the start -- it's not a hella scientific study: the nerds in question just found out which states had the biggest increases in Google searches for the word "sunburn" since summer started.  But, there's probably a little truth to smoke=fire...after all, seeing someone peeling this time of year is as common as someone in a mask should be (see what I did there?).

In case you're curious about the rest of the tri-states, Wisconsin is almost as bad as Iowa -- they come in at #17, while Illinois is ranked #45.  The five most sunburned states are Hawaii, South Carolina, Florida, Maine and West Virginia.  The five least states are Alaska (duh), Washington (also duh), California, Oregon and New Mexico.

I suppose this should be a wakeup call to all of us to wear more sunscreen so we don't end up burned and looking like a leather couch when we're old.  I'll put some on your back if you get mine, mmmkay?