Past IEM Features tagged: may11
Keeping on track
01 Jun 2011 05:58 AMMay is now in the books and for growing degree days totals, it was about on average for May. A warm stretch during the second week of the month really helped to warm up the soils and get the crops going for hopefully a good growing season. June is now here and so is the heat with highs expected in the 80s to near 90 for the rest of the week.
Voting:
Good: 17
Bad: 4
Tags: may11
Summer starts muggy
30 May 2011 05:56 AMThe unofficial start to summer is today and the summer-like muggy air has returned just in time. The featured chart presents dew point observations so far this month and the spike upwards yesterday was thanks to a warm front that made it into Iowa late Sunday afternoon. Dew point readings were the warmest since the second week of May.
Voting:
Good: 9
Bad: 9
Tags: may11
Lack of SW winds continues
19 May 2011 07:35 AMOur winds are again out of the east this morning with an approaching storm system to our west. These winds are not as warm as those from our southwest. The featured chart presents the number of unique hours during which a wind observation of at least 5 knots was reported by the Des Moines ASOS since the first of April. Since 1973, this calculation would indicate that this year has seen the fewest number of hours.
Voting:
Good: 15
Bad: 3
Tags: may11 apr11
Southwesterly winds continue to be rare
16 May 2011 05:53 AMThis weekend saw temperatures struggle to reach 50 on Saturday and 60 on Sunday thanks to cloud cover and northerly winds. The featured chart presents the wind direction and air temperature since 15 April for Ames. The observations where the winds were from a direction between south and west are highlighted in red. These winds typically bring us warm air this time of year. This week will start off with plenty of sunshine and slowly warming temperatures.
Voting:
Good: 9
Bad: 4
Tags: apr11 may11
Much cooler weekend
13 May 2011 06:01 AMThis week has seen very warm weather for early march with highs topping out on Tuesday in the lower 90s for Ames. Much cooler air has arrived just in time for the weekend thanks to a passing storm system. The featured chart shows our hourly temperatures for this week and a forecast from one of the government models called GFS. It looks like we are back in the regime of struggling to reach 60, but warmer weather is set to return next week along with some sunshine.
Voting:
Good: 18
Bad: 16
Tags: may11
Colder than April
04 May 2011 07:17 AMIowa is experiencing another chilly May morning with lows in the 20s and 30s. For some locations, the lows experienced over the past two days have been colder than the coldest daily low temperature in April. This situation is very rare and has only happened during a couple of years since 1893. The featured plot compares the coldest temperature in May against April. A negative value would mean the May lowest temperature was colder than April. Warmer weather is set to return today, but with it will come chances of rain!
Voting:
Good: 16
Bad: 7
Tags: may11