While the cold front that swept Iowa on Tuesday did not produce much in the way of needed rainfall, it did get rid of the hot and muggy air mass. Air temperatures were not quite as warm on Tuesday due to the extra clouds and elevated humidity, but heat index readings felt like air temperatures experienced on Labor Day. With hopefully the really hot weather now gone for the year, it is a good time to total up the number of hours spent AOA (at or above) 95 degrees. The featured map does just that and compares it against a simple past five year climatology. Positive values would indicate more hours this year vs an average of the previous five. This map tells a nice story of this year with large positive departures generally overlapping places under analyzed drought. The reason is that drier conditions changes the surface energy budget and allows for more heating. There is also a self fulfilling prophesy of having less rain implying less cloudiness and more solar heating. An additional map can be found here with the current US Drought Monitor overlain.

Voting:
Good = 14
Bad = 2

Tags:   2023