The heat is on for late August with high temperatures nearing 100 degrees in Iowa. This hot weather is thanks to a strong ridge of higher pressure centered just to our south. Ridge is a meteorological term that describes an area of higher pressure that tends to create sinking motions in the atmosphere and steer storm systems around it. The featured map presents a composite of 18 August events where the high temperature reached 100 degrees for Des Moines. The field plotted is geopotential height at 500 millibars. This is a measure of the depth of the atmosphere up to 500 mb. The composite field shows approximately our current weather situation with a strong ridge centered just to our south. The approximate geographic center of the ridge is plotted on the map as an x for each case. Our weather will remain hot and dry as long as the strong ridge remains in place.

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