Past Features
This page lists out the IEM Daily Features for a month at a time. Features have been posted on most days since February 2002. List all feature titles.
Tue Jul 01, 2025
Cedar Rapids below half inch
01 Jul 2025 05:30 AM
Back on May 20th, the Cedar Rapids Airport reported just over an inch of precipitation. Since then, the highest total has only been 0.49 inches making for a streak of over 40 days below a half inch of precipitation. The featured chart looks into such streaks for the site by plotting the maximum consecutive days by day of the year (blue line). The red line plots consecutive days with no measurable precipitation and finally the bottom panel simply reports the daily maximum precipitation amounts. Sitting at a 40 day streak on the 1st of July is getting close to the maximum at 50 days, but the current stretch would have to extend into late August before exceeding this particularly pigeon-holed record statistic. Of course, such streaks are much easier to achieve during the cold season when daily precipitation amounts are much less.
Voting: Good - 14 Bad - 0
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01 Jul 2025 05:30 AM
Back on May 20th, the Cedar Rapids Airport reported just over an inch of precipitation. Since then, the highest total has only been 0.49 inches making for a streak of over 40 days below a half inch of precipitation. The featured chart looks into such streaks for the site by plotting the maximum consecutive days by day of the year (blue line). The red line plots consecutive days with no measurable precipitation and finally the bottom panel simply reports the daily maximum precipitation amounts. Sitting at a 40 day streak on the 1st of July is getting close to the maximum at 50 days, but the current stretch would have to extend into late August before exceeding this particularly pigeon-holed record statistic. Of course, such streaks are much easier to achieve during the cold season when daily precipitation amounts are much less.
Voting: Good - 14 Bad - 0
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Wed Jul 02, 2025
Corn's Doing Great
02 Jul 2025 05:30 AM
The weekly update from USDA NASS on Monday continued to indicate that the corn crop is in excellent shape for Iowa. The featured chart presents the weekly estimated percentage of the corn crop in either good or excellent condition for Iowa and Illinois. The yearly time series for each year back to 1986 is plotted with this year and the previous two years highlighted for comparison. The most recent 2025 value is only topped by about three other years on record for Iowa. The recent weather has been nearly ideal with plenty of heat units and frequent rainfall events, this was after a somewhat concerning start to June with a lack of warmth and sunshine.
Voting: Good - 14 Bad - 2
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02 Jul 2025 05:30 AM
The weekly update from USDA NASS on Monday continued to indicate that the corn crop is in excellent shape for Iowa. The featured chart presents the weekly estimated percentage of the corn crop in either good or excellent condition for Iowa and Illinois. The yearly time series for each year back to 1986 is plotted with this year and the previous two years highlighted for comparison. The most recent 2025 value is only topped by about three other years on record for Iowa. The recent weather has been nearly ideal with plenty of heat units and frequent rainfall events, this was after a somewhat concerning start to June with a lack of warmth and sunshine.
Voting: Good - 14 Bad - 2
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Thu Jul 03, 2025
Hourly Wind Speed Climo
03 Jul 2025 05:30 AM
The featured chart presents a simple hourly wind speed climatology for Ames by month. The summer months of July and August generally have the slowest wind speeds with April and March having the strongest. Near surface wind speeds are driven by horizontal pressure gradients, which are the weakest during the aforementioned months. The chart also nicely shows the diurnal cycle with solar heating of the ground and then the air causing the lower atmosphere to vertically mix, which transports momentum aloft to the surface.
Voting: Good - 14 Bad - 0
Tags: wind
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03 Jul 2025 05:30 AM
The featured chart presents a simple hourly wind speed climatology for Ames by month. The summer months of July and August generally have the slowest wind speeds with April and March having the strongest. Near surface wind speeds are driven by horizontal pressure gradients, which are the weakest during the aforementioned months. The chart also nicely shows the diurnal cycle with solar heating of the ground and then the air causing the lower atmosphere to vertically mix, which transports momentum aloft to the surface.
Voting: Good - 14 Bad - 0
Tags: wind
Generate This Chart on Website
Mon Jul 07, 2025
3 PM July Temps
07 Jul 2025 05:30 AM
After a very hot Friday, abundant storms on Saturday and a northerly breeze on Sunday helped to knock down the temperatures a bit. The featured chart looks at yearly average 3 PM temperatures during July for Des Moines. A simple period of average is shown along with a linear trend line fit. The early value for 2025 comes in below average by a few degrees and matches the recent trend of not much variance from average. The forecast for this week has afternoon highs in the low to mid 80s, so certainly about average for the second week of July!
Voting: Good - 10 Bad - 0
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07 Jul 2025 05:30 AM
After a very hot Friday, abundant storms on Saturday and a northerly breeze on Sunday helped to knock down the temperatures a bit. The featured chart looks at yearly average 3 PM temperatures during July for Des Moines. A simple period of average is shown along with a linear trend line fit. The early value for 2025 comes in below average by a few degrees and matches the recent trend of not much variance from average. The forecast for this week has afternoon highs in the low to mid 80s, so certainly about average for the second week of July!
Voting: Good - 10 Bad - 0
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Tue Jul 08, 2025
IEM One App
08 Jul 2025 05:30 AM
The featured screenshot is from the IEM One App showing the combination of NWS NEXRAD Mosaic, NWS Alerts, and three webcams all valid around 8 PM Monday evening. This app was recently added to the website as hopefully a helpful means to quickly navigate IEM's massive archives of all three products. This app also has a number of other bells and whistles to it for you to explore and provide feedback on.
Voting: Good - 12 Bad - 0
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08 Jul 2025 05:30 AM
The featured screenshot is from the IEM One App showing the combination of NWS NEXRAD Mosaic, NWS Alerts, and three webcams all valid around 8 PM Monday evening. This app was recently added to the website as hopefully a helpful means to quickly navigate IEM's massive archives of all three products. This app also has a number of other bells and whistles to it for you to explore and provide feedback on.
Voting: Good - 12 Bad - 0
Generate This Chart on Website