Iowa Environmental Mesonet

Road Conditions are back!

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

The feed of Iowa State Patrol Road Conditions for the winter season is once again working! Big thanks to the Iowa Department of Transportation, State Patrol, and the National Weather Service for supporting the feed of this data.

The various IEM apps utilizing this dataset should be working with current data.

Oct ASOS data uploaded

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

The one minute interval data from the Iowa ASOS network for October has been uploaded to the IEM. As a reminder, data for Omaha, Moline, and Sioux Falls is also available in the provided archive.

July COOP data uploaded

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

The quality controlled Iowa COOP data for July has been uploaded to the IEM. Harry Hillaker, our State Climatologist, passes along these notes about the month:

The statewide average temperature was 68.1 degrees or 5.7 degrees below normal while precipitation averaged 4.73 inches or 0.48 inches above normal. This ranks as the coolest and 34th wettest July among 137 years of records. The previous record cool July was in 1891 with a statewide average of 68.3 degrees. Temperatures reached into the 90's on only one day of the month (24th) with only 14 of 138 official temperature stations reaching 90. Onawa and Ankeny were the hot spots with 93 degree maximums. At Dubuque, Northwood and Waukon the highest temperature of the month was only 82 degrees. New Hampton recorded a daytime high of only 59 degrees on the 17th. At Waukon there were twice as many days with highs in the 60's (6) as with highs in the 80's (3).

The following is a report of the number new daily records set for Iowa Climate sites back to 1951.

                 __________2009____________________ 2008 ___
                 JUL  JUN  MAY  APR  MAR  FEB  JAN  DEC  NOV 
Maximum High:      0   25   15   46   84   75    0   24  159
Minimum High:    235   67   18   24   32    0   56   66   28
Maximum Low:       0   35    1    1   50   87    0   21  164
Minimum Low:     144    4   43    1    4    0  132    2   12
Maximum Precip:   58   41   51   76  122   39   51  102   55

Additionally, here are some raw statistics on how the final QC'd data compares with the IEM estimated values. There were no code modification made to the estimator for July's data.

                 _____2009_________
                  JUL   JUN
High Temp Bias   0.7   0.5
High Temp RMSE   1.2   1.0
Low  Temp Bias   0.7   1.2
Low  Temp RMSE   1.3   1.6
Precip    Bias  -0.47 -0.36
Precip    RMSE   0.72  0.86

Oct AWOS data uploaded

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

The one minute interval Iowa AWOS data for October has been uploaded to the IEM data coffers.

IEM Time Machine

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

IEM Time Machine is a fancy new way to rapidly view current and historical images generated by the IEM. The application presents a menu listing of various products and once selected, you can use buttons and sliders to rapidly transverse the archive of data. At every point along the way, the URL updates allowing you to bookmark or share the link with others to view. The initial feedback I have gotten on this application has been tremendously positive, so I hope you like it as well.

One of the neat features is that this application can utilize images stored on remote servers as well (given that they logically store their images in a timestamp based manner). The application includes a few NWS DIFAX archived products at Colorado State.

Let me know what you think about this and also if you have any favorite web archives you would like added to the app. I'll be adding some more that I know about soon.

This application is exactly what I envisioned doing back when I started the IEM in 2001, too bad it took 8 years to generate this :)

June COOP data uploaded

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

The quality controlled NWS COOP data for June 2009 has been uploaded to the IEM. Harry Hillaker, our state climatologist, passes along these notes for the month:

The month averaged 69.0 degrees or 0.8 degrees below normal. Precipitation totaled 5.27 inches or 0.63 inches above normal. This ranked as the 54th coolest and 50th wettest June among 137 years of records.

Here is a listing of new daily records set for the month based on data back to 1951.

                 __________2009____________________ 2008 ___
                 JUN  MAY  APR  MAR  FEB  JAN  DEC  NOV  OCT  
Maximum High:     25   15   46   84   75    0   24  159    2
Minimum High:     67   18   24   32    0   56   66   28    0
Maximum Low:      35    1    1   50   87    0   21  164   29
Minimum Low:       4   43    1    4    0  132    2   12    4
Maximum Precip:   41   51   76  122   39   51  102   55   58

Additionally, I will be including a monthly report going forward providing simple summary statistics on how the IEM's estimate of this month's data compared with the finalized and hand QC'd data. You can check out this news item for more details on the IEM's estimator. These QC'd observations completely replace the estimated values in the archive.

                 _____2009_________
                  JUN
High Temp Bias   0.5
High Temp RMSE   1.0
Low  Temp Bias   1.2
Low  Temp RMSE   1.6
Precip    Bias  -0.36
Precip    RMSE   0.86

* Positive bias values mean the estimates were larger.

Estimated COOP Data

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

The most requested feature of the IEM is to provide updated daily climodat reports. The reason this was not being done previously was that the underlying data takes a couple of months to make the round trip from the observer to the National Climatic Data Center and to the State Climatologist for processing. Additionally, this data was processed on a monthly basis.

To help fill in the gap between when the most recent quality controlled data is available and your current data needs, I have written a system to produce estimates of the daily observations. Of course, this system is not perfect, but it is a starting point for future improvement. Some notes on the estimating routines for various variables:

High and Low Temperature

These values are derived from the automated airport sensors with a strong weighting towards the quality controlled ASOS daily summary reports. These values are analyzed on a simple grid and then sampled back to produce the point estimate. Previous experience with this technique has shown it to sufficiently well.

Precipitation

The IEM computed daily totals from the National Weather Service stage4 precipitation product are used. A simple grid point sampling provides the estimated observation. This routine will take a bit more fine tuning due to deficiencies with the stage4 product, but it is a start.

Snowfall and Snow Depth

These values are problematic even when the 'observations' exist. In general, I am taking the NWS COOP reports made each morning and assigning them to the previous day. A gridded analysis process is done here as well. These values will be very suspect, but it is about the best that can be done. These data are not currently used in the climodat reports.

So in general, feedback is very much encouraged. These estimates are not being used in the climatologies, nor the daily record products. Once the QC'd data arrives, they will be blown out of the database. I may produce a report in the monthly news article with some summary statistics to see how 'good' these first guess estimates are.

As with everything we do, this data is not official nor provided with warranty. You should seek official sources for high end needs.

New Webcam: Olin

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

A new webcamera has been added to the KCRG-TV CityCam network. This camera is located in Olin, which is a community in Jones County. There are now 15 active web cameras in their network.

Corn Growth Timelapse

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

The months of hard work capturing a time lapse from the KCRG-TV webcamera overlooking a corn field near Marion Iowa has paid off! The lapse didn't turn out exactly how I would have liked, but it still looks pretty good. This timelapse is a part of the KCRG-TV "Farmer Josh" charity project this year. Enjoy!

New AWOS: Osceola

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

A new AWOS site has been added to the Iowa DOT network. This site is located at the Osceola Airport and has a preliminary FAA ID of KI75. The DOT passes along that this site will not be relayed to the world via FAA's system for a few months yet.

May COOP data uploaded

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

The quality controlled Iowa COOP data for May 2009 has been uploaded to the IEM. The climodat reports have been regenerated as well. Harry Hillaker, our state climatologist, passes along these notes for the month:

May 2009 averaged 59.8 degrees or 0.4 degrees below normal while precipitation totaled 3.65 inches or 0.58 inches less than normal. This ranks as the 69th warmest (or 69th coolest) and 59th driest May among 137 years of records.

New daily records set for this month, based on data since 1951.

                 _____2009____________________ 2008 ________
                 MAY  APR  MAR  FEB  JAN  DEC  NOV  OCT  SEP  
Maximum High:     15   46   84   75    0   24  159    2    0
Minimum High:     18   24   32    0   56   66   28    0  165
Maximum Low:       1    1   50   87    0   21  164   29   43
Minimum Low:      43    1    4    0  132    2   12    4   11
Maximum Precip:   51   76  122   39   51  102   55   58   41

Sept ASOS data uploaded

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

The one minute interval Iowa ASOS data for September has been uploaded to the IEM.

Sep AWOS Data Uploaded

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

The one minute interval Iowa AWOS data for September has been uploaded to the IEM. Thanks to the Iowa DOT for providing this information.

IEM Seminar

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

I presented a local seminar titled 'IEM Potpourri' yesterday for the ISU Meteorology Department Seminar Series. The talk consisted of some random thoughts about some ASOS data caveats, climate data caveats, and National Weather Service Storm Based Warning verification. I also touched on some archives the IEM has recently built and briefly showed some past IEM Features.

The Agronomy department created a podcast of this presentation.

In my talk, I showed this YouTube video montage of the "best-of" webcam timelapses.

Thanks to everyone that came!

Stage4 Precip Archive

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

The IEM maintains an archive of the NCEP Stage4 precipitation product back to 1997. I have moved this archive to a web accessible location for others to use or script against if so desired. Some notes on this dataset:

The archive prior to 2001 has some holes in it.
A script runs every hour to update this archive with recent files from NCEP. As NCEP gets better data in, they update their files as well. This means that if you write a script to use the data in near realtime, you may wish to backfill yesterday's data at the same time to get any changes made upstream (this is what the IEM does).
The files are in Grib format and not compressed like what you can get from NCEP.
Only recently, the archive contains the 6 and 24 hour summary files. Note that these files are produced independently from the hourly data.

As always, let me know of any issues you have or ideas.

April COOP data uploaded

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

The quality controlled Iowa COOP data for April 2009 has been uploaded to the IEM. The climodat reports have been regenerated as well. Harry Hillaker, our state climatologist, passes along these notes about the month:

The Iowa statewide average temperature for the month was 46.7 degrees or 1.8 degrees below normal. Precipitation averaged 3.69 inches or 0.36 inches more than normal. Snowfall averaged 1.5 inches or 0.4 inches less than normal. This ranks as the 37th coolest and 34th wettest April among 137 years of state records. Snowfall ranked 43rd highest among 122 years of April records. The 2008-2009 snowfall season brought a statewide average of 36.3 inches of snow or 3.9 inches more than normal to rank as the 33rd greatest seasonal total among 122 years of records. The fourth snowiest September though January period of record was followed by the 12th lowest February through May total; thus this past winter had a split personality for snowfall.

One interesting note in April was that Guthrie Center reported 6.79 inches of rain for the 24-hour period ending 8 a.m. on April 27. This was a new 24-hour record for the month of April for any location in Iowa.

IEM computed number of new daily records set for the month:

                 _____2009____________________ 2008 ________
                 APR  MAR  FEB  JAN  DEC  NOV  OCT  SEP  AUG  
Maximum High:     46   84   75    0   24  159    2    0    5
Minimum High:     24   32    0   56   66   28    0  165    2
Maximum Low:       1   50   87    0   21  164   29   43    3
Minimum Low:       1    4    0  132    2   12    4   11    3
Maximum Precip:   76  122   39   51  102   55   58   41   11

DCP Archive Fix

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

A bug was found with a portion of the DCP network archive the IEM maintains. For data between 8 Jan and 16 Oct 2008, the timestamp was incorrectly stored as local time when it was actually GMT. This error has been corrected and I apologize for the issue.

New Webcam: Fort Dodge

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

Another webcamera has been added to the KCCI-TV SchoolNet8 network. This camera is located at the Trinity Regional Medical Center in Fort Dodge with internet service kindly donated by Frontier Communications.

Twitter iembots are back

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

Back in mid August, many of the twitter accounts IEMBot uses to make noise were suspended due to suspected abuse. Twitter finally got back to me this afternoon noting that the suspension was in error and all of the iembot twitter accounts are working again, whew.

Here is a link to the Twitter accounts for Iowa NWS offices:

Hopefully, this won't happen again!

Dubuque Climate Data

akrherz@iastate.edu (Daryl Herzmann)

I have spliced together some data to bring Dubuque's climate record back to the 1890s, previously it went back to the standard 1951. Currently, the IEM website does a very poor job explaining how these records are assembled and how various neighboring sites are used to splice together long term records. Anyway, I hope to improve on that soon with some new code I am writing to support it.

The climodat reports have been updated with this new information as well.