Monday, 22 August 2011 Extended Pow County Forecast

An area of showers and storms over the southwest 1/3 of Iowa this morning will slowly track to the southeast and dissipate thru the morning hours - missing Pow County all together....

Another round of thunderstorms are expected this evening, beginning in west to northwest Iowa and then spreading east to southeast during the overnight hours. Locally heavy rain is possible, mainly across northern Iowa overnight tonight.  Most of the beneficial rainfall with this system will stay in Northern Iowa, bringing Central Iowa/Pow County only an Isolated shot at some Tstorms Tuesday.  The system will move thru our area by Wed morning - putting our weather in a drier and warmer pattern thru the end of the week.  This weeks rainfall will be less than 1/4".  Temps will mainly be in the Mid/High 80's thru Saturday - with the warmest day being Wed when temps may reach 90.....The next respectable shot at rainfall looks to be next Monday/Tues..... 



Today 22nd: Dry - Temp 85.


Tues thru Sat 23rd-27th: Isolated Tshowers Tues - Dry Wed thru Sat - Temps Mid/High 80's.


Sun thru Tues 28th-30th: Dry Sun - Tshowers Mon - Dry Tues - Temps near 80.


Wed thru Sun 31st-Sept 4th: Mainly Dry, Warmer, and Breezy.

Mon and Tues 5th/6th: Tshowers.

Wed 7th:  Dry.


Note:  Expect the first U.S. Hurricane Landfall on Thursday, the 25th in Florida - It will track North up the East Coast for the following 5 days or so.

IOWA PRELIMINARY MONTHLY WEATHER SUMMARY – JULY 2011

General Summary.Iowa temperatures averaged 78.8° or 5.0° above normal while precipitation totaled 3.37 inches or 0.88 inch less than normal.This ranks as the seventh warmest and 60^th driest July among 139 years of records.A warmer month was last recorded in August 1983 and a warmer July not since 1955.

Temperatures.July got off to a hot start with highs in the 90s statewide on the 1^st and this proved to be a sign of things to come.Only five days (3^rd-4^th and 12^th-14^th) averaged cooler than normal while another five days (1^st, 17^th-20^th) averaged more than ten degrees above normal.Official temperatures reached 100°or better on seven dates (18^th-23^rd and the 27^th) with most of the triple digit readings coming from south central and southeast Iowa.Keosauqua reported the highest official temperature with 102° on the 18^th.Very high humidity added to the discomfort with official dew points readings as high as 83°.The heat index officially climbed to 110° or higher on six days (16^th-19^th, 23^rd & 27^th) with Spencer reaching 117° on the 18^th.Unofficial heat index readings climbed as high as 130°.Cooler air masses made a few brief incursions into the state with minimum temperatures of 52° at Elkader on the 4^th and at Mason City on the 13^th and 25^th.Only July 2010 (53°) had a higher statewide calendar month minimum temperature.




Precipitation.Summer rainfall tends to be highly variable across Iowa and this past month was more so than usual.Monthly rain totals varied from only 0.17 inch at Fairfield to 16.01 inches at the Dubuque Airport.Fairfield’s total was their lowest for July since 1975 and only 4% of normal.Dubuque’s total was swollen by a record 24-hour rainfall of 10.62 inches on the night of July 27.Their July total was the highest for any month at that location among 158 years of records (old record 15.46 inches in September 1965).Unofficial rain totals of up to 14.5 inches were reported just south of Dubuque which seems quite plausible given official totals to 13.70 inches just across the Mississippi River near Galena, Illinois.Locally heavy rain also fell in Dickinson County earlier in the month with 9.97 inches reported west of Spirit Lake from July 10th to the 15^th.Meanwhile parts of south central and southeast Iowa, which had been very wet in May and June, recorded less than an inch of rain during July.Relatively dry conditions have also gradually developed over the past several months over much of west central, central and southwest Iowa as well as smaller areas in the other sections of the state.The dryness, along with persistent July heat, probably is reducing crop yields in many areas from what had been a good early growing season.

Severe Weather.The most damaging severe weather event of the growing season struck at least 22 counties during the pre-dawn hours of July 11.This long-lived thunderstorm event, known as a derecho, brought winds estimated as high as 130 miles per hour in Benton County.This event had a lifespan of about 24-hours, beginning in Nebraska during the evening of the 10^th and finally ending in Maryland on the evening of the 11^th.