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State Climatologist Releases 2011 Weather Summary
Posted 6 January, 2012
With
2011 now complete, the State Climatologist for Iowa, Harry Hillaker,
released a summary of the top weather stories from the year. The
State Climatologist’s office is within the Iowa Department of
Agriculture and Land Stewardship.
“Preliminary analysis shows
that in 2011 Iowa experienced an average temperature of 48.8 degrees or
0.7 degrees above normal and had a statewide average of 32.00 inches of
precipitation or 3.27 inches less than normal,” said Hillaker.
“The result is that 2011 ranks as the 50th warmest year and 68th driest
among 139 years of state weather records.”
“The weather is
always a hot, or cold, topic in Iowa, and Harry does a great job
collecting the information and making it available to Iowans,” said
Bill Northey, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture. “There was no
shortage of interesting weather events again in 2011 and this is a
great list of the highs and lows.”
The top Iowa weather events in 2011 in chronological order are:
Blizzard
- Jan. 31-Feb. 2 (mostly on Feb 1) – Snow fell statewide with over a
foot of snow across southeast and east central Iowa. Storm
totals of 18.5 inches at Lowden and a record-tying 18.4 inches at the
Quad Cities. Strong wind gusts were also reported, with gust of
66 mph at Clinton. The simultaneous occurrence of the
highest winds with the most intense rate of snowfall resulted in very
poor visibility. The storm produced a statewide average of
7.4 inches of snow.
Tornados - April 9 – A total of twenty
tornadoes were reported on the evening of April 9, mostly across west
central and northwest Iowa. The most damaging of the series
was the very first storm which brought EF-3 damage to Mapleton.
Hot
and Cold May - May 3 and 10 – A nearly statewide freeze occurred May 3
with temperatures as low as 20 degrees at Sibley and
Spencer. Lower May temperatures have been recorded only
four times in the past 100 years in Iowa. On the 10th,
temperatures soared into the nineties over nearly all of Iowa with
Jefferson reaching 100 degrees. This was the earliest
occurrence of triple digit heat in Iowa since April 22, 1980.
Wet
Weather – June – Very wet weather prevailed across southeast Iowa with
Keosauqua (16.14 inches) and Bloomfield (14.60 inches) recording the
most rain of record at those locations for any calendar month.
Western
Iowa Flooding - May through September – Easily the largest weather
event of 2011 was the flooding along the Missouri River.
Record crests were set at gaging points near Mills County (June 30) and
Fremont County (June 28). Major flooding persisted for
several months in response to very wet antecedent conditions in the
Upper Missouri basin, a large winter snowpack, rapid snow melt
following an unusually cold spring and excessive upstream spring
rainfall. Fortunately, no major rain events occurred in the
Iowa portion of the watershed during 2011.
July Heat – July –
Preliminary data show Iowa experienced its hottest July since 1955 and
hottest calendar month since August 1983. Actual
temperatures peaked at 102 degrees at Keosauqua on July 18 with a peak
official heat index of 117 degrees at Spencer (also on the 18th).
Derecho
- July 11 – Widespread very high winds occurred across parts of east
central Iowa in the pre-dawn hours of July 11 with winds estimated as
high as 130 mph in Benton County. Later that same day
Iowa’s last tornado of the year touched down in Webster
County. Iowa saw a very early start to the tornado season,
with outbreaks on March 22 and April 9, but also the earliest end to
the season since 1962.
Heavy Rain Storms - July 26-27 – Very
heavy rain fell across portions of northeast Iowa on the night of July
26 with the heaviest rains falling in the Dubuque area where the
airport saw a record 24-hour total of 10.62 inches of rain and
unofficial totals were as high as 14.5 inches. The rain
contributed greatly to a record monthly total of 16.01 inches at the
Dubuque Airport (old record 15.46 inches in September 1965 among 158
years of data in the area).
Record Hot Day - August 2 –
Temperatures soared across southeast Iowa in advance of a cool front
with Fairfield recording an actual temperature of 106
degrees. This was Iowa’s highest official reading since
Washta reached 106 on July 19, 2006. Iowa City saw the
highest official heat index that afternoon with a reading of 117
degrees.
Drought - July-December – The high mid and late summer
temperatures were a reflection of very dry conditions that rapidly
developed in July. Southeast Iowa was the first area to
turn dry (ironically after seeing record rains in June) with Fairfield
recording only 0.17 inch of rain in July. Dry conditions
spread to all but portions of east central and northeast Iowa by
September. Relief in the form of several large rain events
came to many areas in November and December but severe drought
conditions persist at year’s end over about the northwest one-quarter
of the state. The late year dryness allowed for a very
rapid completion of Iowa’s harvest (98% of the soybeans harvested by
the end of October). However, at the same time the state’s
pastures were in their worst condition in eight years.
Early
Freeze - September 15 – Nearly half of Iowa saw a freeze on the morning
of September 15 with Mason City reporting a low of 26
degrees. This was Iowa’s lowest temperature for so early in
the fall since Sibley reported 23 degrees on September 11,
1955. At Jefferson and Cedar Rapids this tied for the
earliest freeze on record.
Warm December - December 11-31 – The
last three weeks of the year were very mild with temperatures averaging
12.6 degrees above normal while an average of only 0.3 inches of snow
fell across Iowa. This was a huge contrast from the
previous four Decembers which were all unusually cold and
snowy. However, more seasonal weather occurring during the
first ten days of the month will keep the month out of the top ten for
warmth and lack of snow (in fact, December 2006 was warmer and had less
snow).
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