Drastic Drop!

A strong cold front made its’ way across the state late this afternoon, picking up the winds and dropping the temperatures! Here in Ames, we reached a high of 70 degrees; this occurring at 3 PM this afternoon. The cold front began to push through by 4 and was passed the Ames area by 5 pm as winds switched around the the northwest by that time. Also, the temperature quickly dropped from 70 degrees to 52 by 5 pm! It has continued to drop throughout with the aide of the sunset and is currently below 40 degrees here just after 9 PM. Other cities within the state have seen the similar drop in temperatures, Lamoni saw their high of 71 quickly drop within the same period of time and they now sit at a chilly 39 degrees. These types of temperatures will remain in the forecast as highs over the remainder of the week will be in the 40s and lows will be in the 20s to some lower 30s possibly. Either way, a much chillier week then the weekend…

Also, just as a side note here. The Iowa State American Meteorological Society is selling calendars for a fund raiser. These calendars are $10 without shipping otherwise if you would have to have them shipped they would cost you $12. Essentially if you are interested in buying one, get ahold of me in one of the many ways possible and I can get one for you. A preview of the calendar can be found here: ISU AMS 2007 Weather Calendar

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NW Iowa Snow! … New Site Page!

Last night into today featured a fast moving system that brought quite a bit of rain and even snow to areas of the state. Some areas of northwest Iowa actually received accumulating snowfall, with Orange City coming out with nearly an inch of snowfall. Other areas of northwest Iowa also received light accumulation to a dusting of snowfall that was able to actually stay on the ground for a while. Otherwise, the rest of the state was under a pretty good sheet of rain for most of the morning. This system has moved off quickly and the state is fairly dry now this afternoon, however with another system moving in by Friday night the area won’t have much time to dry. This system should bring rainfall into the picture on Friday night, but during the day on Saturday as temperatures once again begin to drop a mix of rain/snow will be possible. Along with this next system will come the cold temperatures, with lows below 30 degrees and highs only reaching into the lower 40s in the warmest region of the state.

Also, for a little site update, I have a new page that is featured on the website. This is mainly a page for college and career people, as it features 4-year plan for courses, course justifications and several goals pertaining to education and career. I figured I would share it with everybody though, so along with the link under ‘ISU’ on my webpage navigation bar, here is the link: ISU Student Portfolio

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First Arctic Air Blast

Well the Arctic air is into the plains! The first official Arctic air shot of the Fall/Winter has made its’ way into the plains and is taking a fairly strong hold with temperatures remaining in the 40s and below for much of the area. For an Iowa summary, this mornings lows were quite chilly! Ranging from the lower 30s in southeast Iowa to the mid 20s in northwest Iowa! The warmest low temperature this morning was in Washington and Fairfield, where it was a ‘warm’ 34 degrees. Lowest temperature in Iowa was in Le Mars, where this morning it dropped down to 22 degrees, although Estherville was not far behind with a low of 23 and there were several cities in the northern half of the state that reached 24 degrees for the low. Highs today weren’t terrible so to say, but with a howling northwest wind, they definitely didn’t feel too warm. Low 50s in the southwest part of the state were the warmest, with much of the corner reaching 52 degrees. While the northeast part of the state stayed quite cool, with the help of clouds much of the day and the wind bringing in even colder air, Decorah was the winner today with a high of 35 degrees!

Besides talk of just the cold air that moved in with the latest system, snow came in with it! Here in Ames both yesterday and today featured several ’spirts’ of flurries, none of it accumulating. Other areas of the state weren’t as lucky, if you don’t like the snowfall, as they actually did have some accumulation of it. Most likely, just a dusting of snow, but it was enough for the CO-OP observers around the state to report it as snowfall! Areas that recieved snow yesterday/last night included: Lake Park, Swea City, Titonka, Britt, Lake Mills, Osage, Tripoli, Waucoma and Maquoketa. Other areas in Iowa saw flurries and maybe localized accumulation as well, those are the only Co-op observers in the state that reported accumulation.

As mentioned before, the other factor today was the wind. Gusts today were fairly consistant across the state with them ranging from 25-40 mph across the state. It was slightly calmer in the southeast, while the northwest was by far the windiest today with several stations reporting gusts in the upper 30s.

Tonight should see lows in the low 20s to around 30 across the state, with temperatures tomorrow warming up a bit with the sun. Ranging from the mid 40s in the north, to some lower 50s across the south side of the state. Both lows and highs should gradually increase through the weekend and into early next week before the next system moves in on Sunday night/Monday with a chance of rain.

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October 11 Noon Snow Update

Been watching METAR’s for the past hours and watching to see where the snow has been falling, a quick write up on how the snow has progressed with areas of ND/MN/SD/NE and WI seeing snowfall so far in the past 6 hours. Expect this snow to continue and possibly increase in some areas over the rest of the day and especially into tonight where temperatures will drop very quickly.

This morning at 7 am we had snowfall in O’Neill to Valentine, NE, along with snowfall reported south of Fargo, ND along the SD/ND/MN intersection. Also had snowfall reported north of the Twin Cities along the MN/WI border along with some sleet/mix precip.

By 10 am we are looking at snowfall in NE still, along a band across central NE. Also scattered snowfall reported in eastern SD that has worked its’ way into southwest MN, other areas of northern MN and around the Twin Cities also reported snow at that time. Much of northwest WI also in snowfall, otherwise rain falling throughout WI/IL at the time.

Just before Noon, snowfall still being reported in that small band across NE, BBW I believe is the station reporting it at this time. Much of MN that is seeing precip. is in the form of snowfall, across northern, southwest and near the Twin Cities, southeast MN however is still in the rainfall. Most of western WI has now turned to snow as well, otherwise some heavy rain actually being reported through the rest of the state and southward into Illinois.

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Cold Weather!

It has been quite a while since I got a chance to update and I felt especially with the first arctic air making its’ way down into the plains I definitely needed an update. Temperatures here in Ames are expected to drop to near the 40 mark tonight and then barely make it back up to the mid 40s before beginning to drop the rest of the afternoon. What makes it even better is the expected precipitation in the forecast, a very cold rain that could turn into snow flurries by late afternoon/evening and especially by tomorrow night when temperatures continue to drop down into the upper 20s! This cold weather should stick with us on Thursday, with highs only around 40 degrees and lows on Thursday night being in the mid 20s! That is right, a killing frost is on its’ way already in the first half of October. We should start to rebound for the weekend, as highs rise through the 50s and around 60 by Sunday, although lows will remain around the freezing mark on Friday, gradually working up to near 40 on Sunday night.

Although no accumulating snow is expected in Iowa, up north there is a good shot at some. Areas of ND and northwestern MN should start to seeing some accumulation of snow by late tonight actually! Although only a dusting expected tonight in those areas, other areas of northern Minnesota are currently forecasted to get 1-2 inches overnight, especially in the Duluth to International Falls area. This snow is expected to continue during the afternoon tomorrow, makings its’ way into western Wisconsin and into the UP of Michigan by tomorrow night. Some areas on the other side of the lake in the UP may see several inches, anywhere from 3-6 inches even! Other areas of northern Minnesota may see that 1-3 inches with locally higher amounts. Also something to watch for will be how far south the snow can make it, a dusting is currently forecasted in some areas of SD as well as southern MN, so it is not to far off from areas of Iowa. That will do it for the update, hopefully another one once this event is underway with some total snow amounts and if Ames got to see any type of snow.

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