Ironically and just a few week's ago, the IEM daily feature mused if Ames could take a run at the July monthly precipitation record set during July 1993. It turns out that Des Moines was able to do just that with the 2025 total (10.62") eclipsing the previous record set in 1958 (10.51") and as an aside, the 1993 total was 9.75 inches. The featured chart presents the monthly precipitation records and an immediate oddity is how much lower the July total is versus the other warm season monthly records. This likely has to do with storm complexes being the least frequent during the month, so having numerous heavy rainfall events pile up during the month is less than during June and August. That speculation aside, another initial reaction is why the July 1993 total for Des Moines wasn't higher given the benchmark flooding that happened for the city. The reasons for this are a bit complex as well, but flooding is a most often a result of up-river heavy rainfall events, which were much bigger during 1993 than this year. Additionally, the state of Saylorville Lake Reservoir (upstream Des Moines Flood Control) is an important differentiation as well. During 1993, the reservoir was topped. This year, and so thankfully so far, it has not been.

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