Posted under Precipitation Totals, Uncategorized

Saturated ground, melting of record snowfall, ice jams and new rainfall are all adding to high river levels and flooding over Eastern Iowa.  Many area rivers have Flood Warnings associated with them, although mainly the northern portions of each river are being affected right now.  The warnings will work their way downstream as the week progresses. 

Click on the river or stream name to see the latest river level and projection.

Beaver Creek

Cedar River

English River

Iowa River

Maquoketa River

Mississippi River

North Skunk River

Shell Rock River

Turkey River

Upper Iowa River

Wapsipinicon River

West Fork Cedar River

The latest Flood Warnings can be found at the following links:

From the Des Moines Weather Service Office

From the Davenport Weather Service Office

From the La Crosse Weather Service Office

Posted under Uncategorized

Posted under Precipitation Totals

Yesterday, the first tornado in the U.S.  since January 24 touched down near Hammon, OK in the western part of the state. It damaged 5 homes but the good news is…no injuries or fatalities were reported. Here is the video of that tornado. This video is courtesy of Andy Gabrielson

Posted under Severe Weather, Video

Click on the rivers below for the lastest level and forecast crest.

Beaver Creek

Cedar River

English River

Iowa River

Maquoketa River

Mississippi River

North Skunk River

Shell Rock River

Turkey River

Upper Iowa River

Wapsipinicon River

West Fork Cedar River

Posted under Flooding, Rivers

While we haven’t seen much extreme cold this winter, it has been noted for its lack of a significant heat spell or January thaw.  In fact, according to the National Weather Service in Des Moines, Waterloo has set a new record for consecutive days in which the temperatures has not reached 40 degrees or higher.  The new record is 94 consecutive days with below 40 degree temperatures.  That means we haven’t been 40 degrees or warmer since the 1st of December.  The good news is that we finally broke the streak on Saturday (3/6) when the temperature hit 40 on the dot in Waterloo.  Lets hope the warming trend continues!

The last record was 93 consecutive days and was set in 1968-69.

Posted under Uncategorized

Here are the seasonal snow totals.

Now compare the numbers…

Snow Totals for 2008-09
Waterloo: 47.9″
Dubuque: 53.9″
Cedar Rapids: 45.5″
Iowa City: 33.2″

Here are the average snow totals:
Waterloo: 34.1″
Dubuque: 43.5″
Cedar Rapids: 32.0
Iowa City: 27.6″

Posted under Precipitation Totals, Winter Weather

The latest flood outlook from the National Weather Service came out today. There is not much change from the previous outlook.

There are some unknown variables in the next few weeks that could heavily impact the rivers.
#1 Are we done getting snow? If we do get snow…how much and where does if fall?
#2 How fast does the snow/ice melt?
#3 Will there be rain? How much? Where does it fall?
#4 Ice jams could cause flash flooding.

As you can see there are some unknowns that need to be monitored as we transition from Winter to Spring.

Click on the forecast offices below to get a much more details look at the rivers you are concerned about.

NWS Quad Cities

NWS Des Moines

NWS LaCrosse

Posted under Flooding, NOAA

Here is a good description of what the GOES-P is and does while in space.

Posted under NASA, Video

The 500 mb chart and water vapor satellite (above) shows a low pressure system over northern Colorado and southern Wyoming. This low will move northeast and weaken as is brings us a chance of rain late Saturday afternoon into early Sunday morning. There is another low just off the west coast. This will dip south into southern California and than turn east. The path of this storm has been changing with the last few models runs. First it was across Missouri…than down in Arkansas…now over Iowa. The models should have a better handle on this storm as storm moves on shore and we get more data into the models. The storm is forecast to bring us a chance of rain Tuesday and Wednesday. Rain Forecast Fri Eve-Mon Eve
The above map shows rain amounts forecast for eastern Iowa (late afternoon Saturday to early morning  Sunday) to around 0.25″.  

Tonight: Mostly clear with patchy fog.  Low: 18-24. Wind: SE 5-10 mph.

Saturday: Increasing clouds with 30% chance of late afternoon showers.  High: 41-45. Wind: SE 5-10 mph.Saturday Night: Cloudy with 40% chance of showers. Low: 34-36. Wind: SE 5-10 mph.

Sunday: 20% chance of morning showers with afternoon clearing. High: low 40s

Posted under Forecast Discussion