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This post was written by Schnack on January 8, 2013
UPDATED at 3:45 PM
Tonight: Clear to partly cloudy and breezy. Low: 22-29. Wind: W 10-20 mph.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny and warm. High: 38-46. Wind: W 10-15 mph.
Wednesday Night: Mostly clear with patchy fog. Low: 23-29. Wind: SE 5-10 mph.
Thursday: Cloudy with a 70% chance of rain and breezy (SE 10-20 mph). High: upper 30s.
Friday: Mostly cloudy with a 20% chance of rain. High: low 40s.
Saturday: Partly to mostly cloudy, windy (NW 15-25 mph) and colder. High: near 30.
Sunday: Partly cloudy. High: low 20s.
Monday: Partly cloudy. High: mid 20s.
Tuesday: Partly cloudy. High: mid 20s.
It was another warm day with highs in the upper 30s to low 40s. The snow and ice that melted today will refreeze again tonight with a few slippery spots early Wednesday morning. It will be another night with a clear to partly cloudy sky. The wind will remain breezy tonight preventing any fog from forming.
The wind will be the strongest Wednesday morning and diminish during the afternoon as high pressure moves across the state. The high will also provide us with sunshine and warm temperatures for this time of year.
Speaking of warm…last year was the warmest on record for the contiguous U.S. Here is the story I posted on the blog earlier today. Click here.
Last year the average temperature beat the old record by one degree. Look how close the next four are to each other.
An area of low pressure will track northeast and spread rain across Iowa Thursday morning. Here is the HPC forecast map for Thursday morning.
Rain is expected to continue Thursday night into Friday morning before it tapers off. Temperatures are expected to be warm enough to keep all of the precipitation in the form of rain. The rain will taper off Friday morning as the storm pulls away. Here is the rain forecast through Friday evening.
A cold front is still forecast to cross the state and bring much colder air back to the Midwest. The front will cross the state Friday night. The high temperatures Saturday will be in the morning. Temperatures most of the day will be in the 20s with a gusty northwest wind.
High pressure will move across the middle of the country Sunday through Tuesday with dry weather and normal temperatures for this time of year.
Posted under Forecast Discussion
This post was written by Schnack on January 8, 2013
You would probably agree that 2012 was a warm year, but did you know it is the warmest year on record. It beat the old record by one degree.
Here are the top 5:
2012: 55.32 deg
1998: 54.32 deg
2006: 54.30 deg
1934: 54.13 deg
1999: 53.93 deg
From NCDC:
According to NOAA scientists, the average temperature for the contiguous U.S. for 2012 was 55.3°F, which was 3.2°F above the 20th century average and 1.0°F above the previous record from 1998. The year consisted of the fourth warmest winter, a record warm spring, the second warmest summer, and a warmer-than-average autumn. Although the last four months of 2012 did not bring the same unusual warmth as the first 8 months of the year, the September through December temperatures were warm enough for 2012 to remain the record warmest year, by a wide margin.
Click here for the complete story from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).
Posted under Climate
This post was written by Schnack on January 8, 2013
From NWS
2003: Unseasonably warm weather brought temperatures into the 60s across about the southern half of Iowa resulting in record temperatures in many areas. At Des Moines the temperature reached 67 F which is the warmest January reading on record at that location. Other reported high temperatures included 60 F at Sioux City and Waterloo, 64 F at Cedar Rapids and Onawa, 65 F at Atlantic and Iowa City, 66 F at Glenwood and Fort Madison, 67 F at Fairfield and Keosauqua, and 70 F at Indianola.
1886: A blizzard across Iowa on January 7-9 produced particularly severe effects across northern portions of the state. The snow began on the 7th and winds increased substantially on the 8th and 9th, then finally tapered off early on the 10th. The blizzard halted all travel across the region and resulted in a number of deaths. In Hancock County a young teacher was found frozen to death less than half a mile from her home as she tried to return from the schoolhouse. A woman and her two children were caught in the open and suffered a similar fate near Algona. A Milwaukee passenger train was snowbound near Britt for nearly five days. January of 1886 was a month frequented by snow storms, and remains the snowiest month on record at Des Moines with a total of 37.0 inches.
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Posted under Weather History
This post was written by Schnack on January 8, 2013
