Your Eastern Iowa

Summer 2013 begins Friday June 21 at 12:04 AM

jkennedy — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:54:00 +0000

Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun

Summer Solstice

The Earth revolves around the Sun one time each year. The Earth’s axis is always tilted…the Northern axis points toward the North Star, Polaris. The combination of the axis tilt and the revolution around the Sun makes the seasons change. Right now the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun. From our perspecitve it looks like the Sun is high in the sky. We have long days and short nights. At 12:04 AM our time the Sun is directly overhead along the Tropic of Cancer…that’s when Summer 2013 begins. A bit of a bummer…after Friday the days begin to get shorter again!

Jeff’s trip to Grundy Center

jkennedy — Sun, 26 May 2013 01:46:35 +0000

Grundy Center Elementary

Click here to see theGrundy Center 4th graders saying hello!The 4th graders at Grundy Center Elementary school invited me to visit their classroom on Tuesday, May 21. We talked about the EF5 tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma. We looked at pictures of hurricanes and blizzards. We learned about how important the Sun is when it comes to our weather. I enjoyed my day in Grundy Center!

Very few tornadoes!

jkennedy — Mon, 13 May 2013 01:49:55 +0000

How long since the last tornado warning?

The Eastern part of Iowa is served by 3 separate National Weather Service offices. One is in Des Moines, one in Davenport and another in La Crosse. This map shows the number of days that has elapsed since the last tornado warning issued by the individual NWS offices. Note that for the NWS Des Moines and Davenport offices there have been no tornado warnings issued in over a year! Note, too, that the NWS office near Milaukee hasn’t issued any tornado warnings in almost two years!

Updated outlook for May

jkennedy — Sun, 12 May 2013 15:13:06 +0000

May Precipitation Outlook

May Temperature Outlook

Quite a big change from the earlier May outlooks…now our part of the country is forecast to be cooler and wetter than normal. Based on the first week of the month, this may not be too big of a stretch…

Three Chilly Saints

jkennedy — Sat, 11 May 2013 22:18:24 +0000

St. Servatius

St. Pancrus

St. Mamertus

Many years ago people kept track of time with the church’s calendar. May 11, 12 and 13 belong to St. Mamertus, St. Pancrus and St. Servatius. Folklore says “St. Servatius will not pass without a frost” and “He who shears his sheep before St. Servatius loves his wool more than his sheep” Also referred to as “The Three Chilly Saints” or “The Three Icemen” At least this year, the Icemen Days are turning unusually chilly!

Jeff’s trip to Cresco

jkennedy — Sun, 05 May 2013 01:22:26 +0000

Cresco…home of the Cadets!

It was a nice day in Howard County!

Elementary and Middle School

Jeff and the 8th graders

Click here to see the Cresco students saying hello!I was happy to go back to Howard County on Tuesday, April 30. The fine folks at Cresco Crestwood Middle School invited me to talk to the 8th grade students as they begin their unit on weather. We covered lots of topics including severe local storms, floods, hurricanes and winter storms. Mrs. Bohr’s classes were good listeners and they asked great questions. A few of them even made a cameo on the 6:00 PM news Saturday night! Thanks to everyone in Cresco. I enjoyed my time there and want to come back soon.

Snow in May??!!

jkennedy — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:23:17 +0000

Today’s snowfall

Here are some of the latest snowfall reports from today’s storm…

Another wet stretch?

jkennedy — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 22:03:35 +0000

Experimental 7 day precipitation outlook

Another slow-moving cut-off cyclone is forecast to move through the Midwest beginning May 1. The storm looks like it’ll bring lots of rainy weather our way! Here is the latest precipitation outlook for the next 7 days.

Jeff’s Sunday morning run through Marion (with almost 1,000 of my closest friends)

jkennedy — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:49:46 +0000

Rather sore after the run…but ready to do it again (just not too soon!)

Duane St. John…Rotary guy (Iowa fan!) and Jeff…runner guy (Wisconsin fan!)

Some of Marion’s finest…hard at work on a Sunday morning.

With the situation in Boston last week, there was law enforcement EVERYWHERE in Marion.

Many thanks to the fine folks with the Marion-East Cedar Rapids Rotary. The inaugural Rotary Marathon for Shoes was held Sunday April 21. There was a marathon and half-marathon…we started and finished at Linn Mar High School. 3 words…WIND…HILLS…WHEW! I enjoyed my morning in Marion. I wanna do another half-marathon…just not right away.

How will the weather be in May?

jkennedy — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:02:50 +0000

May precipitation outlook

May temperature outlook

Will our weather EVER warm up?! Will it EVER dry out?! Here is the outlook for the month of May… The reddish colors on the temperature map indicate warmer than normal while the blue indicates colder. “EC” means “Equal Chances”…or near normal. On the precipitation map the brown colors indicate drier than normal…”EC again means “Equal Chances”.