Outside of a warm week or two this growing season, there was not much heat to speak of and our growing degree total was some 400 units short of average. The record cold in July really hurt as it should be the month where we accumulate the most GDDs. A very wet October did not help the still standing crops any as mold is now a major problem with the corn and soybean crops.

Voting:
Good = 30
Bad = 8

Tags:   2009  

The featured chart displays the monthly number of severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings issued by the National Weather Service for this year and last. In general, the number of warnings is down this year compared with 2008. The most significant difference is the number of tornado warnings in May being half of the total for 2008.

Voting:
Good = 18
Bad = 9

Tags:   2008   2009  

The featured chart is a comparison of the accumulated rainfall for this year and last along with the climatological accumulation. In general, the running total for this year has remained above the climatology with the heavy rainfall in October pushing us well north of average again. We are still a ways from repeating 2008, which is a good thing.

Voting:
Good = 14
Bad = 6

Tags:   2008   2009  

The featured map is a summary of growing degree days based on Iowa ASOS network daily observations. When compared against long term data, the percentile for this year's values are mostly below 10 (blue number). Based on these unofficial numbers, places like Dubuque and Davenport have not seen smaller GDD accumulations for the period of 1 May thru 28 July. More cool weather is in the forecast with highs struggling to reach 70 on Thursday!

Voting:
Good = 10
Bad = 1

Tags:   2009  

Just another amazingly cold morning with low temperatures in the -40 to -20 degree range in Eastern Iowa. The featured plot of AWOS low temperatures shows a -38 in Monticello! Not shown, Waterloo tied its all-time record low temperature of -34. Temperatures are expected to warm up today and be near freezing this weekend, that is a 50 some degree warm up!

Voting:
Good = 47
Bad = 17

Tags:   cold   2009events  

A brutally cold air mass is currently entrenched over the Upper MidWest with low temperatures this morning in the minus teens and twenties across Iowa. The featured analysis shows negative numbers over much of the area. The big question today is if we will warm to above zero!

Voting:
Good = 28
Bad = 6

Tags:   cold   2009events