From akrherz at iastate.edu Wed Sep 1 11:00:10 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:10 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009011600.o81G0ABs008787@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 01 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-08-31 | Title : As windy as it has been all summer | Date : 31 Aug 06:00 AM | Votes : Good: 22 Bad: 7 +---------------------------------------------- Sustained wind speeds on Monday were some of the strongest we have seen since early May as shown by the featured image. The black line represents climatology and nicely shows the yearly minimum in winds during the early part of August. Wind speeds will increase as surface temperature gradients become stronger during the spring and fall seasons. Thunderstorms are back visiting the state this morning with more expected into Thursday. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 31 Aug 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 49 9 | 1 1 9 8 1 | 2 Fl Flood 2 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 49 Verified: 22 [44.9 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [66.0 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [39.6 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [18.3 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1350 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.68] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.55] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.37] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Thu Sep 2 11:00:06 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 11:00:06 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009021600.o82G06kb029254@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 02 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-01 | Title : Blew a big lead | Date : 01 Sep 06:00 AM | Votes : Good: 30 Bad: 10 +---------------------------------------------- For Des Moines, the summer of 2010 came so close to breaking the record for precipitation. The featured chart shows that for most of the summer, 2010 had a sizable lead over the hallowed 1993. With just three days to go, 1993 overtook this year and barely held on to win by just 7 hundredths of an inch! Heavy rainfall once again visited the state last night, but it was not quite enough for Des Moines. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 01 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 2 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 60 0 | 0 0 0 9 1 | 1 Fl Flood 14 0 | 0 0 0 1 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 59 Verified: 24 [40.7 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [69.0 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [32.6 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [15.0 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1621 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.77] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.59] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.36] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Fri Sep 3 11:00:05 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 11:00:05 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009031600.o83G057H016724@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 03 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-02 | Title : Precip Duration | Date : 02 Sep 06:00 AM | Votes : Good: 51 Bad: 16 +---------------------------------------------- The featured chart presents the frequency of precipitation events as measured by the number of consecuative hours at least one hundredth of an inch is reported by the Des Moines weather sensor. Events lasting 10 or more hours are highlighted with the white crosses. The chart shows that long duration events are extremely rare during the summer time when storms tend to be more isolated and not associated with large storm complexes. The largest concentration of long duration events is in March and April. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 02 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 2 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 106 1 | 2 1 0 2 2 | 3 Fl Flood 16 0 | 0 0 0 0 2 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 107 Verified: 43 [40.2 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [58.9 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [30.9 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [13.4 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [2618 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.75] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.60] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.36] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Sat Sep 4 11:00:04 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010 11:00:04 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009041600.o84G04PA027454@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 04 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-03 | Title : Its name is Earl | Date : 03 Sep 06:05 AM | Votes : Good: 41 Bad: 5 +---------------------------------------------- Hurricane Earl is working its way up the eastern coast this morning, but appears it will not directly hit land until it weakens to a tropical storm. The featured map displays peak wind gusts reported thus far in North Carolina and values have yet to reach hurricane strength. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 03 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 6 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 5 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 6 Verified: 3 [50.0 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [86.5 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [18.8 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [29.3 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1680 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.62] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.50] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.38] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Sun Sep 5 11:00:03 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2010 11:00:03 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009051600.o85G033R013650@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 05 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-04 | Title : Lows above average | Date : 04 Sep 06:44 AM | Votes : Good: 34 Bad: 8 +---------------------------------------------- The featured chart presents the number of days during the meteorological summer (June - August) that either the high or low temperature were above average. The average used was the current standard climate (1971-2000). For 2010, 74 out of the 92 days were above average for low temperature which is easily the largest value on this chart for low temperature. The colors represent if the value was above 46 or below. The 1930s stand out for being warm while the 1960s for being cool. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 04 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report No Warnings Issued -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Mon Sep 6 11:00:03 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2010 11:00:03 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009061600.o86G03iU005684@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 06 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature No feature posted > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 05 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 7 0 | 0 1 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 6 Verified: 4 [66.7 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [69.5 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [27.9 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [17.5 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [2407 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.33] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.33] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.29] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Tue Sep 7 11:00:04 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2010 11:00:04 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009071600.o87G04bu001743@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 07 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-06 | Title : Will 70+ dew points return? | Date : 06 Sep 08:07 AM | Votes : Good: 23 Bad: 5 +---------------------------------------------- The featured chart presents the number of cycles per year that the dew point observed at Des Moines goes from a value above 70 to below 50 and then back to 70+ after 1 August. For 2010, we have already experienced one such cycle and have an outside chance of completing another today with a storm system drawing warm and moist air north. The chart would indicate that returning back to the 70s after our second dip into the sub 50s would not be uncommon. The maximum value shown of 5 cycles was in 1997. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 06 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 2 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 1 Svr Tstorm 20 2 | 4 0 1 0 1 | 1 Fl Flood 2 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 22 Verified: 8 [36.4 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [68.7 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [43.4 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [20.2 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1131 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.44] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.64] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.25] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Wed Sep 8 11:00:05 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2010 11:00:05 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009081600.o88G05j5018910@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 08 September 2010 > News +---------------------------------------------- | Title : Aug ASOS Data Uploaded | Date : 07 Sep 11:13 AM | Author: Daryl Herzmann | URL : http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/request/asos/1min.phtml +----------------------------------------------

The one minute interval Iowa ASOS data for August 2010 has been uploaded to the IEM data coffers. Data for Sioux Falls, Omaha, and Moline are included as well. This archive of one minute interval data goes back to the year 2000. > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-07 | Title : No lack of GDDs this year | Date : 07 Sep 05:52 AM | Votes : Good: 37 Bad: 7 +---------------------------------------------- While this growing season has not be overly hot as measured by high temperature, our overnight low temperatures have been well above average. The featured map displays the percentile for growing degree days since 1 May (a value of 100 implies the largest accumulation on record for the site). Most of the state is shown in the 80-90+ percentile. The result is the corn and soybean crops are well ahead of schedule this year. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 07 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 21 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 2 Svr Tstorm 37 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 37 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 58 Verified: 23 [39.7 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [67.7 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [34.7 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [21.6 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1326 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.79] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.60] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.36] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Thu Sep 9 11:00:12 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2010 11:00:12 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009091600.o89G0CFh005073@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 09 September 2010 > News +---------------------------------------------- | Title : New windrose plots | Date : 08 Sep 04:13 PM | Author: Daryl Herzmann | URL : http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/sites/windrose.phtml?station=AMW&network=IA_ASOS +----------------------------------------------

The wind rose plots found on the IEM have been updated to use a different plotting package and cleaned up in the process. A script is currently pre-generating the yearly and monthly plots found on the "IEM Sites" application. You can also create custom wind roses here for sites in Iowa and the rest of the country.

Here is an example plot:

These plots are generated in python with matplotlib. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for functionality. > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-08 | Title : Peak intensities | Date : 08 Sep 05:55 AM | Votes : Good: 27 Bad: 7 +---------------------------------------------- The featured graph presents IEM computed peak rainfall accumulations measured over an hour and two hours. The values are actual totals from the ASOS precipitation sensor. Just over a week ago, the Ames sensor reported 3.52 inches of rain over a two hour period. This value is only topped on the chart by Spencer back in 2005. You may notice that the two hour total is no where near doubling the one hour total. In Iowa, the heaviest of rainfall events will only last 30 minutes or so. It takes training of multiple cells to produce these large totals. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 08 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 22 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 2 Svr Tstorm 7 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 48 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 29 Verified: 9 [31.0 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [72.1 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [38.6 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [12.3 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1101 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.75] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.69] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.28] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Fri Sep 10 11:00:04 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 11:00:04 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009101600.o8AG04uq028653@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 10 September 2010 > News +---------------------------------------------- | Title : Aug AWOS Data Uploaded | Date : 09 Sep 02:32 PM | Author: Daryl Herzmann | URL : http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/request/awos/1min.php +----------------------------------------------

The one minute interval Iowa AWOS data for August has been uploaded to the IEM. This information is kindly provided by the Iowa Department of Transportation, Aviation Division, each month. These AWOS sites are located at the smaller airports, whereas the ASOS sites are federally maintained and located at the large airports in the state. > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-09 | Title : Wind components | Date : 09 Sep 06:01 AM | Votes : Good: 43 Bad: 6 +---------------------------------------------- The wind speed and direction can be broken into two components. These are a south to north (v wind) and west to east (u wind) component. [Those of you that failed geometry may wish to vote bad now]. The featured graph presents the daily averaged u and v wind speed component. This chart shows a clear annual cycle. Outside of the summer months, the jet stream is often nearby and tends to help promote dominant westerly winds. The v winds show us the dominant air temperature advection regimes with northerly (negative v values) during the winter time and warm southerly (positive v) in the summer time. September is shown as a transition period with westerlies increasing and southerlies decreasing. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 09 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 14 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 2 Svr Tstorm 30 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 1 Fl Flood 11 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 44 Verified: 17 [38.6 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [80.2 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [16.8 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [14.8 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [2063 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.73] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.61] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.34] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Sat Sep 11 11:00:03 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2010 11:00:03 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009111600.o8BG03Mc010094@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 11 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-10 | Title : Breaking records frequency | Date : 10 Sep 06:02 AM | Votes : Good: 31 Bad: 7 +---------------------------------------------- According to IEM computations, Ames has yet to break a recrod daily high temperature this year and only surpassed one minimum low. The featured chart presents the number of new records set per year going back to 1893. For instance, 1893 would have set 365 records that year since it was the first year. The black line is a modelled expectation of record breaking expressed simply as 365 days divided by the number of years passed by. We'd expect to break around 3 daily high and low temperature records this year. The plot highlights an interesting period in climate between 1940 and the late 1970s where our weather was rather benign with no extreme year of breaking high temperatures. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 10 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 1 Svr Tstorm 25 0 | 0 0 1 0 0 | 1 Fl Flood 4 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 24 Verified: 9 [37.5 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [67.5 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [35.4 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [17.3 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1320 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.77] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.63] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.34] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Sun Sep 12 11:00:04 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 11:00:04 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009121600.o8CG04vZ018790@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 12 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature No feature posted > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 11 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 27 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 8 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 27 Verified: 15 [55.6 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [58.6 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [40.5 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [23.7 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1498 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.63] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.44] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.42] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Mon Sep 13 11:00:04 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 11:00:04 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009131600.o8DG04v6009896@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 13 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature No feature posted > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 12 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 1 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 10 0 | 0 2 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 11 Verified: 5 [45.5 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [65.5 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [16.6 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [25.6 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1260 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.82] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.55] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.41] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Tue Sep 14 11:00:06 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:00:06 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009141600.o8EG06Qa003593@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 14 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-13 | Title : Years since the record | Date : 13 Sep 05:55 AM | Votes : Good: 18 Bad: 3 +---------------------------------------------- The featured chart presents the number of years since the record high or low temperature was set for Ames. Ties were not considered. Ames went another meteorological summer without setting a record high temperature. One has to go back to 1988 to find the last record high for Ames during June, July, and August. For July, the youngest record for high temperature was back in 1955! No records are in the forecast for this week. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 13 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 10 0 | 0 0 0 2 0 | 1 Svr Tstorm 93 5 | 0 0 5 17 0 | 4 Fl Flood 8 1 | 0 0 2 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 100 Verified: 53 [53.0 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [72.7 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [31.8 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [30.2 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1198 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.90] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.47] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.50] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Wed Sep 15 11:00:04 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:00:04 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009151600.o8FG04gk009119@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 15 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-14 | Title : Heaviest rain missed us this time | Date : 14 Sep 05:59 AM | Votes : Good: 31 Bad: 5 +---------------------------------------------- The featured map is from the excellent Q2 website showing their estimates of rainfall for the past 24 hours. While some isolated locations in Iowa picked up over two inches of rain, the heaviest totals fell just outside the state in Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas. More rain is in the forecast this week. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 14 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 4 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 1 Svr Tstorm 20 0 | 0 0 0 0 4 | 3 Fl Flood 1 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 21 Verified: 12 [57.1 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [66.4 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [40.7 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [18.2 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1850 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.58] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.43] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.40] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Thu Sep 16 11:00:05 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:05 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009161600.o8GG051e010926@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 16 September 2010 > News +---------------------------------------------- | Title : Jan COOP Data Uploaded | Date : 16 Sep 07:39 AM | Author: Daryl Herzmann | URL : http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/climodat/ +----------------------------------------------

The quality controlled Iowa COOP data for January 2010 has been uploaded to the IEM. These daily reports of high/low temperature, precipitation, and snowfall are the basis for Iowa's climate record. These reports are provided by the state climatologist, Harry Hillaker, who passes along this note for the month:

The statewide average temperature was 13.2 degrees or 4.6 degrees below normal while precipitation averaged 1.33 inches or 0.38 inches above normal. This ranked as the 28th coldest and 37th wettest January among 138 years of records. Snowfall averaged 8.0 inches or 0.2 inches less than normal. There were three big events during the month. The first was a bitter cold wave from the 1st through the 12th. Actual temperatures fell as low as -37 degrees at Spencer on the morning of January 2 while the wind chill fell to -53 degrees at Estherville. Estherville???s wind chill was the lowest recorded in Iowa since February 1, 1996. Several north central Iowa locations saw daytime temperatures remain at or below zero for six of the first nine days of the new year.
The second event was a blizzard on the 6th-7th that brought much of the month???s snow (5.3 inches statewide average) and 35 to 45 mph winds. The final major event was an ice storm on the 20th which glazed nearly all of the state and brought the worst conditions to west central and central Iowa with one-half inch or more of ice.

The following is the number of new daily records set at COOP sites based on data back to 1951. 

                 2010 __________2009________________________
                 JAN  DEC  NOV  OCT  SEP  AUG  JUL  JUN  MAY
Maximum High:      0    0    2    0    0    0    0   25   15
Minimum High:     97   24    0  396    1  150  235   67   18
Maximum Low:      18    3   74    2    0   12    0   35    1
Minimum Low:     131   41    0   35   21  103  144    4   43
Maximum Precip:  151  193   45  161   25   65   58   41   51

The following is some bulk statistics on how well IEM's daily COOP data estimator is performing on a monthly basis versus this QC'd dataset. No code changes were made. 

                 2010_________________________2009___________
                 JAN   DEC   NOV   OCT   SEP   AUG  JUL   JUN
High Temp Bias   1.3   0.8   0.9   0.8   0.9   0.3   0.7   0.5
High Temp RMSE   1.6   1.1   1.2   1.1   1.3   1.0   1.2   1.0
Low  Temp Bias   1.9   1.3   1.1   1.2   0.8   1.0   0.7   1.2
Low  Temp RMSE   2.1   1.7   1.6   1.6   1.7   1.6   1.3   1.6
Precip    Bias  -0.47 -1.41 -0.22 -1.10 -0.15 -0.71 -0.47 -0.36
Precip    RMSE   0.50  1.44  0.33  1.14  0.41  1.04  0.72  0.86

The Climodat reports referenced from this news item are summaries of this daily data. > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-15 | Title : Limited cool weather | Date : 15 Sep 05:54 AM | Votes : Good: 31 Bad: 7 +---------------------------------------------- The featured analysis presents the percentile rank for minimum temperature so far this fall season (since 1 August). Most of the state is shown with values above 50, which implies the lowest temperature so far has been above average. Now is the time of year when we start worrying about frost, but thanks to our warm growing season, an early frost this year would not hurt the agricultural crops. The forecast has temperatures well above freezing into next week. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 15 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 13 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 2 Svr Tstorm 97 4 | 4 0 2 3 14 | 2 Fl Flood 13 0 | 1 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 107 Verified: 58 [54.2 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [67.7 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [38.1 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [21.4 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1668 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.88] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.46] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.50] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Fri Sep 17 11:00:07 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2010 11:00:07 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009171600.o8HG07oJ004672@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 17 September 2010 > News +---------------------------------------------- | Title : RWIS Soil + Traffic Data | Date : 16 Sep 11:59 AM | Author: Daryl Herzmann | URL : http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/RWIS/ +----------------------------------------------

The Iowa Department of Transportation is now kindly sharing some auxillary data collected on many of their RWIS platforms to the IEM. These data sets include traffic flow information and road bed / soil temperature probe information.

Here is a wonderful example of how this data looks plotted in a chart:

It will take the IEM some time to build up more applications using this dataset, but the data is being archived and is available for download now (traffic and soil). Please note that there are only a handful of sites with soil probe information at this time. > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-16 | Title : Watching more than Texas | Date : 16 Sep 05:56 AM | Votes : Good: 33 Bad: 5 +---------------------------------------------- The Storm Prediction Center issued another watch for Iowa yesterday making for the 113th watch issued this year that covered portions of Iowa. The featured graph displays the number of watches year to date issued for Iowa and Texas. This is the first year since 1997 that Iowa has seen more watches. The bottom graph displays the percentage of all watches issued that cover a portion of Iowa. This year has seen the highest percentage! Another reason why 2010 has been an exceptional year. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 16 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 19 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 1 Svr Tstorm 72 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 1 Fl Flood 4 0 | 1 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 91 Verified: 41 [45.1 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [64.5 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [36.4 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [20.2 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1506 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.86] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.55] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.42] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Sat Sep 18 11:00:03 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:00:03 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009181600.o8IG03cP012893@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 18 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-17 | Title : Streak above 70 ends | Date : 17 Sep 05:54 AM | Votes : Good: 28 Bad: 7 +---------------------------------------------- The high temperature for Ames yesterday failed to top 70 degrees, which was the first time since mid May it happened. The featured chart presents the longest streaks for Ames having the high temperature at or above 70. This year comes in 9th all-time. The forecast has highs back into the 80s next week. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 17 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 2 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 7 0 | 0 0 0 1 0 | 1 Fl Flood 3 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 6 Verified: 2 [33.3 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [87.1 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [16.2 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [27.8 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [649 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.50] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.67] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.25] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Sun Sep 19 11:00:06 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2010 11:00:06 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009191600.o8JG06Z5020767@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 19 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature No feature posted > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 18 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 3 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 82 8 | 0 0 7 10 0 | 2 Fl Flood 13 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 77 Verified: 41 [53.2 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [71.0 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [27.5 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [30.0 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [913 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.78] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.47] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.46] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Mon Sep 20 11:00:04 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:00:04 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009201600.o8KG04ia017791@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 20 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature No feature posted > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 19 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 3 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 23 9 | 0 1 7 3 0 | 1 Fl Flood 19 1 | 0 0 2 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 26 Verified: 12 [46.2 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [70.7 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [27.8 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [23.1 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [793 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.76] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.54] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.40] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Tue Sep 21 11:00:03 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 11:00:03 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009211600.o8LG03q7032178@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 21 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-20 | Title : Noisy Nights | Date : 20 Sep 05:55 AM | Votes : Good: 17 Bad: 6 +---------------------------------------------- Numerous rounds of thunderstorms dumped hail and heavy rainfall on primarily southern Iowa this past weekend. The featured chart presents a summary of the number of automated weather station reports of thunderstorms from the Des Moines airport sensor. The 2010 total surpasses each of the previous years since 1993. The bottom sub chart shows the hourly normalized frequency. This year has seen relatively more thunderstorms during the night time hours than previous years. This has made for a number of nights of difficult sleeping weather. More thunderstorms are in the forecast for this week. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 20 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 2 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 3 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 2 Verified: 0 [0.0 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [73.2 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [35.8 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [0.0 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1580 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.00] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [1.00] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.00] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Wed Sep 22 11:00:06 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:00:06 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009221600.o8MG06Jg005819@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 22 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-21 | Title : 30 degree jumps | Date : 21 Sep 05:59 AM | Votes : Good: 36 Bad: 8 +---------------------------------------------- After having high temperatures in the 50s on Sunday, warm air rushed the state on Monday pushing highs well into the 80s. For some places like Ames, the jump in high temperature was over 30 degrees in just one day! The featured chart presents the largest one day high temperature rise and drop along with the number of occurences of a 30+ degree change based on data for Ames. You can see in the summertime that these large of changes do not occur and are rare for September. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 21 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 64 7 | 1 10 3 0 0 | 5 Fl Flood 10 2 | 0 0 3 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 64 Verified: 39 [60.9 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [58.5 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [38.2 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [23.7 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [2222 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.77] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.39] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.52] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Thu Sep 23 11:00:11 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:00:11 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009231600.o8NG0BXl002486@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 23 September 2010 > News +---------------------------------------------- | Title : New Precip Plots | Date : 23 Sep 09:21 AM | Author: Daryl Herzmann | URL : http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/current/ +----------------------------------------------

The IEM is now producing a number of additional precipitation plots that hopefully be useful to folks. These plots are based on the fantastic NMQ (National Mosaic & QPE) project. These folks are generating high resolution and high quality precipitation data on a realtime basis. The IEM archives this data to help produce a number of data products and has now added a few plots of interest.

5 Minute Interval Rainfall Intensities

This product is generated every 5 minutes and displays the current rainfall intensity based mostly on RADAR information. This plot is available in the IEM Timemachine, which makes for fun looping over an event:

Today's Rainfall Estimate

This product sums up the hourly precipitation estimates producing a plot valid for the local day in Iowa.

CONUS Stage IV Precipitation Total

This plot totals up the hourly Stage IV estimates to produce a summary plot for the local day. I also backfilled this product archive back to 1 Jan 2002, so the time machine app has plenty to chew on.

I hope these all are useful, if you have ideas, please let me know! > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-22 | Title : Too many of these events | Date : 22 Sep 05:55 AM | Votes : Good: 31 Bad: 6 +---------------------------------------------- And yet another round of heavy rain producing storms dumped well over an inch over parts of Southern Iowa yesterday. The featured map presents the number of 1+ inch rainfall events over 24 hours since the first of April. A good portion of southern Iowa is shown in the 20 day range. The plot nicely shows the areas that have seen flooding this year. More of these events are in the forecast for this week. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 22 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 4 0 | 0 0 0 0 1 | 1 Svr Tstorm 133 3 | 0 0 0 6 27 | 4 Fl Flood 22 0 | 0 0 0 2 5 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 137 Verified: 99 [72.3 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [68.1 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [31.1 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [29.8 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1784 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.92] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.28] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.68] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Fri Sep 24 11:00:03 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2010 11:00:03 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009241600.o8OG03Pp000807@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 24 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-23 | Title : Above average humidity returns again | Date : 23 Sep 05:02 AM | Votes : Good: 25 Bad: 8 +---------------------------------------------- A push of warm and moist air has once again invaded the state making today feel more like summer than fall. The featured chart presents the climatology of near surface water vapor mixing ratio, which is a measure of the amount of moisture held in the atmosphere. The summer of 2010 has certainly seen more than its fair share of humidity as noted by the dominance of red in the lower plot. The grey filled area in the top plot represents the range of mixing ratio. It is interesting to see that the lowest values in the summer are still higher than the maxes in the winter. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 23 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 10 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report No Warnings Issued -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Sat Sep 25 11:00:03 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2010 11:00:03 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009251600.o8PG03HR011262@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 25 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-24 | Title : Fall's Tug on Climatology | Date : 24 Sep 04:59 AM | Votes : Good: 43 Bad: 6 +---------------------------------------------- The fall season is officially here in Iowa eventhough the actual weather feels more like the muggy days of summer. The featured map presents the three week change in climatological average high temperature over the US. The map nicely shows where fall makes its fastest progression (high plains and mountain regions) this time of year. Places like Florida are only slightly affected thanks to the moderating effects of being surrounded by warm water. The corn belt makes a conspicuous appearance in this plot as an area cooling slower than areas to its north and west. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 24 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report No Warnings Issued -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Sun Sep 26 11:00:04 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2010 11:00:04 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009261600.o8QG042f013351@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 26 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature No feature posted > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 25 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 1 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 11 0 | 0 0 0 1 2 | 1 Fl Flood 17 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 12 Verified: 5 [41.7 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [63.5 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [40.8 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [15.7 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1404 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.64] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.58] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.34] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Mon Sep 27 11:00:03 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2010 11:00:03 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009271600.o8RG03OR007537@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 27 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature No feature posted > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 26 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 3 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 8 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 2 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 11 Verified: 4 [36.4 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [80.7 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [14.6 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [20.7 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [788 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.83] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.64] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.34] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Tue Sep 28 11:00:04 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:00:04 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009281600.o8SG045L012386@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 28 September 2010 > News +---------------------------------------------- | Title : IEM Development | Date : 27 Sep 11:04 AM | Author: Daryl Herzmann | URL : https://trac.agron.iastate.edu/trac/IEM +----------------------------------------------

Since 2003, the source code that makes the IEM run has been managed by a revision control system. This allows the code to be developed by a team of coders without them stepping on each other's toes while editing files, etc. Well, the team was always just me! I recently hooked up a Trac instance to this source code tree and am now trying to develop the IEM in a more public manner. The goal is for others to look at how various IEM applications work and perhaps help them develop apps against the IEM.

Another motivation is for me to personally write better and documented code. We shall see how that goal turns out :)

So, if you are a web2.0 developer or have an interest in various web apps I wrote, please check out the Trac site and the source code browser. If you find bugs with my code, please let me know! I hope folks find this stuff somewhat useful. > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-27 | Title : Inch plus rain events | Date : 27 Sep 05:11 AM | Votes : Good: 28 Bad: 4 +---------------------------------------------- This year has certainly seen more than its fair share of heavy rainfall events. The featured chart presents the contribution of daily rainfall events over an inch along with all other rainfall events for Ames. The only other year that compares with this year was the epic summer of 1993. This year has seen one more heavy rainfall event than 1993 and these events (12) have totalled 24.5 inches of rain! No more heavy rainfall events are in the immediate forecast with a prolonged stretch of dry weather expected. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 27 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 4 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Svr Tstorm 24 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 6 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 27 Verified: 12 [44.4 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [69.5 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [29.1 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [19.0 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [1040 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.39] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.56] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.26] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Wed Sep 29 11:00:03 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 11:00:03 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009291600.o8TG03pj006983@despam-11.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 29 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-28 | Title : Yearly Max Temperature | Date : 28 Sep 05:04 AM | Votes : Good: 19 Bad: 8 +---------------------------------------------- Yesterday, Los Angeles, California set their all time record high temperature of 113! This may seem weird for the calendar showing the near end of September. The featured chart shows the yearly maximum temperature for Ames and the day of the year that high was reported (ties are included). The distribution of that high temperature and day of year is presented as well. For the most part, the warmest temperature occurs in July and it is somewhere in the mid 90s. The color coding of the dots shows if that year had above or below normal precipitation. It makes sense that most of the warmest numbers occured during relatively drier years. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 28 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 4 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 1 Svr Tstorm 12 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 16 Verified: 3 [18.8 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [66.8 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [23.0 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [5.8 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [2004 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.67] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.81] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.17] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From akrherz at iastate.edu Thu Sep 30 11:00:03 2010 From: akrherz at iastate.edu (daryl herzmann) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:00:03 -0500 Subject: IEM Daily Bulletin Message-ID: <201009301600.o8UG035r028955@despam-10.iastate.edu> Iowa Environmental Mesonet Daily Bulletin for 30 September 2010 > News No news is good news > Daily Feature +---------------------------------------------- http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/onsite/features/cat.php?day=2010-09-29 | Title : Key Fall Temperatures | Date : 29 Sep 05:08 AM | Votes : Good: 14 Bad: 12 +---------------------------------------------- Nearly all of Iowa has probably not seen sub freezing temperatures yet this fall. The featured chart displays the date of the first sub freezing temperature for Ames along with the number of days afterwards until the first sub 29 degree temperature (typically considered the killing frost). A value of zero days would imply that the first day of sub freezing temperatures also dipped below 29. A final delineation is also provided with the size of the dots representing Jun/Jul/Aug precipitation with red dots being those years above 18 inches, like this year. The earliest freeze shown on this chart was in 1902, even after a wet summer. As for this year, our first good chance for a freeze is expected to arrive this weekend. > NWS Watch/Warning Summary for 29 Sep 2010 Summary +_________ By WFO ____________+ Watches Type US IA | ARX DVN DMX OAX FSD | US Tornado 10 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 1 Svr Tstorm 2 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 Fl Flood 15 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 | N/A ARX = LaCrosse, WI DVN = Davenport, IA DMX = Des Moines, IA OAX = Omaha, NE FSD = Sioux Falls, SD > IEM Cow Report SVR+TOR Warnings Issued: 9 Verified: 1 [11.1 %] Reduction of Size Versus County Based [72.4 %] Average Perimeter Ratio [33.3 %] Percentage of Warned Area Verified (15km) [4.6 %] Average Storm Based Warning Size [627 sq km] Probability of Detection(higher is better)[0.33] False Alarm Ratio (lower is better) [0.89] Critical Success Index (higher is better) [0.09] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: