After a devastating year of damaging severe weather, 2012 is starting off active with the number of warnings issued second to only 2008 since 2002. More severe weather is possible today over the southeast US.

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Tags:   jan  

According to IEM estimates, the warmest temperature recorded so far in Iowa this month was a mere 44 degrees. This makes for one of the lowest values on record only behind 1979 and 1940. Last year was not much better, with just one degree warmer value of 45. The forecast for the next few days does hold some promise that we may be able to improve on the warmest value with highs hopefully above freezing for most.

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Tags:   jan11   jan  

Some lucky parts of Iowa got to experience at or above freezing temperatures on Monday! For Des Moines, the experience was brief for only a few moments in the mid afternoon. The featured chart presents the number of hours at or above freezing for January measured by the Des Moines ASOS. The total number of hours so far this January is one of the smallest since the epic winters during the late 1970s. January 2006 sticks out with the number of hours totalling around 20 days worth of time! The bottom chart presents the hourly frequency of having at or above freezing temperatures. The largest percentages are in mid-afternoon at just under 40%.

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Good = 18
Bad = 6

Tags:   jan  

The average temperature so far this month is about 5 degrees below normal for Ames with each day having snow cover so far. The featured chart presents the relationship between observed average temperature departure and number of days with snow cover for January. While the linear fit is not perfect, the relationship is fairly clear. The preliminary value so far for 2011 is shown by the plus symbol. The chart shows the coldest five months all having snow cover for 30 or 31 days.

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Good = 16
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Tags:   snowcover   jan