Past Features
This page lists out the IEM Daily Features for a month at a time. Features have been posted on most days since February 2002. List all feature titles.
Mon Oct 02, 2023
Large Departures
02 Oct 2023 05:30 AM
Summer-like warmth arrived on Friday, hung out for the weekend, and plans on sticking around to start off the work week. Record high temperatures in the lower 90s were widely reported over Iowa and some points beyond the state. The featured calendar chart presents daily high temperature departures from average for Ames since 1 February. The values over the past three days are larger than anything since mid April. Of course, it is "easier" to have larger high temperature beats during the colder half of the year as climatological averages are lower and temperature spreads are larger. It looks like we'll have at last two more hot days until more typical weather arrives mid week.
Voting: Good - 17 Bad - 0
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02 Oct 2023 05:30 AM
Summer-like warmth arrived on Friday, hung out for the weekend, and plans on sticking around to start off the work week. Record high temperatures in the lower 90s were widely reported over Iowa and some points beyond the state. The featured calendar chart presents daily high temperature departures from average for Ames since 1 February. The values over the past three days are larger than anything since mid April. Of course, it is "easier" to have larger high temperature beats during the colder half of the year as climatological averages are lower and temperature spreads are larger. It looks like we'll have at last two more hot days until more typical weather arrives mid week.
Voting: Good - 17 Bad - 0
Generate This Chart on Website
Tue Oct 03, 2023
Waterloo Daily Records
03 Oct 2023 05:30 AM
On Sunday with a high temperature of 93, Waterloo beat its previous record of 91 for the date set back in 1897! The featured chart presents the yearly count of new daily records for maximum high, minimum low, and largest precipitation for the site. The period of record starts off in 1896, so the first number of years will see wild variations and large numbers of new records set, thus why the chart is clipped at 50 events to more focus on what happens during later years. A simple model of setting 365 divided by the number of years on record for each year is plotted in black with the color of the bars representing if that year's total came in above or below that line. There is a lot of nuance going on with this plot including the numerous daily high temperature records established during the 1930s that have not been challenged and thus dropping the record frequencies afterwards. Anyway, for Waterloo, the past four years have seen above trend-line totals for record highs being set, but this has followed a rather benign period of the first two decades of the 2000s (sans 2012).
Voting: Good - 9 Bad - 0
Generate This Chart on Website
03 Oct 2023 05:30 AM
On Sunday with a high temperature of 93, Waterloo beat its previous record of 91 for the date set back in 1897! The featured chart presents the yearly count of new daily records for maximum high, minimum low, and largest precipitation for the site. The period of record starts off in 1896, so the first number of years will see wild variations and large numbers of new records set, thus why the chart is clipped at 50 events to more focus on what happens during later years. A simple model of setting 365 divided by the number of years on record for each year is plotted in black with the color of the bars representing if that year's total came in above or below that line. There is a lot of nuance going on with this plot including the numerous daily high temperature records established during the 1930s that have not been challenged and thus dropping the record frequencies afterwards. Anyway, for Waterloo, the past four years have seen above trend-line totals for record highs being set, but this has followed a rather benign period of the first two decades of the 2000s (sans 2012).
Voting: Good - 9 Bad - 0
Generate This Chart on Website
Wed Oct 04, 2023
Sioux City New Records
04 Oct 2023 05:30 AM
The amazing warmth over the past number of days has set a number of new daily high temperature records over the state and beyond. Sioux City has seen three such records set. The featured chart presents the dates and magnitudes of new daily maximum high (red dots) or minimum low (blue dots) temperature records being set. You can mouse over the dots to get more exact details and even click + drag on the chart to zoom in for a better view. This plot does not include tie events, so thus why all values are at least 1 degree and larger. Similar to yesterday's feature, the initial years in the plot are noisy as the climate record gets established and daily records become more statistically less likely to beat.
Voting: Good - 9 Bad - 0
Generate This Chart on Website
04 Oct 2023 05:30 AM
The amazing warmth over the past number of days has set a number of new daily high temperature records over the state and beyond. Sioux City has seen three such records set. The featured chart presents the dates and magnitudes of new daily maximum high (red dots) or minimum low (blue dots) temperature records being set. You can mouse over the dots to get more exact details and even click + drag on the chart to zoom in for a better view. This plot does not include tie events, so thus why all values are at least 1 degree and larger. Similar to yesterday's feature, the initial years in the plot are noisy as the climate record gets established and daily records become more statistically less likely to beat.
Voting: Good - 9 Bad - 0
Generate This Chart on Website