Welcome Back Winter...

Winter tried to take a break from the state, with temperatures rising well above freezing in some areas and the sun shining brightly. It didn't last too long though as a strong cold front and low pressure system have moved into the state this morning and allowed temperatures to free-fall with winds increasing 20-35 mph. The combination of falling temperatures and continued high winds will allow wind chill values in the -20s and -30s tonight across parts of northern Iowa. Some snowfall is also expected across the state this afternoon and overnight as the cold front and low pressure system move through. The heaviest amounts are likely over southeast Iowa where 1-2 inches of snow is possible during the overnight hours. Beyond today, expect the cold conditions to continue through Wednesday this week...

Lows tonight ranging from -10 to 10 degrees from the northwest corner to the southeast corner. As mentioned previously, with strong northwest winds the wind chill values will be well below zero across the entire state. Highs on Monday will range from the single digits to the teens across the state, with lows falling into the teens below zero and single digits at best. A slight warm-up on Tuesday with highs near 10 to near 20 from northwest to southeast. Tuesday night lows will range from the single digits above and below zero to a few temperatures just above 10 degrees in the southeast. Teens to lower 20s expected on Wednesday, with lows overnight finally ranging in the single digits above zero for the entire state.

I'll leave today's post with an image that I took today just north of Pocahontas, Iowa where a northbound semi lost control due to high winds and somewhat slick conditions and managed itself into the southbound ditch.

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Dec. 3 Snow Accumulations

Snow amounts today weren't as heavy as anticipated, with the line of snow moving through quicker and being narrower than forecasts. Accumulations still caused plenty of travel hazards, as over a dozen accidents just around the Des Moines metro area occurred this morning, including a 9 vehicle accident just north of Des Moines. Storm total accumulations:

Ottumwa - 3.5"
Oskalooska - 3.0"
Rathbun - 2.0"
Knoxville - 2.0"
Des Moines - 1.6"
Lamoni - 1.0"
Ringsted - 1.0"
Waterloo - 0.8"
Mason City - 0.7"
Iowa Falls - 0.5"
Algona - 0.5"


Skies are beginning to clear, with just a few flurries being possible across northwest Iowa tonight with a weak disturbance. Temperatures tonight will be chilly, with northwest winds beginning to die down a bit they will be able to drop just a little further into the single digits over northeast Iowa and into the teens across the rest of the state. High temperatures on Thursday will be in the 20s throughout, with a few flurries still possible over mainly northwest Iowa. Thursday night lows will be even colder, with single digits over all but southwest Iowa! Friday's highs will warm up just ahead of our next storm system, ranging from the lower 20s to mid 30s from northeast to southwest. Friday night will see lows in the 20s for the most part, with mostly cloudy skies keeping them up compared to previous nights. Friday night snowfall should yield only a dusting to at most an inch, as moisture is fairly scarce at this point.

Into the weekend expect to see temperatures hovering in the 20s to near freezing, with lows in the single digits and teens on Saturday and then into the teens and 20s on Sunday night. This will lead into our next storm system entering the state on Sunday night and lasting into Monday. Snowfall is likely, although some mentions of sleet have also been thrown out in forecast discussions today. More details on this system in later updates...

For now, I'll leave this update tonight with a nice picture from earlier this summer of a Goldfinch that was taking a rest on a Lilac bush. A friendly reminder that the warmth is only 5 months away!!

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Book Pre-Release: Natural Scenes

As I mentioned within a previous post, a book featuring images that I've taken over the course of the last several years is being released for sale. I've got a good amount completed, and thus have issued a pre-release sale for the book as you can find on the newly designed and opened ChaserSupply. You can read more information on the sale page at ChaserSupply, but if you enjoy any of the images that have been posted on the blog here you are sure to love the images in this book!






While the book is a little on the pricey side, I have to admit that, it is a solid book that is made to be used on your coffee table for all to enjoy. The hardcover is just that, a hard cover with full color images on the front/back that is sure to get you and your guests attention. If you would really like to purchase the book, send me an email (photos@iowachaser.com) with your request and will send you some information on how you can receive a discount by reading my blog!

Once again, my premier release of the book Natural Scenes to be shipped out on December 10, 2008 is now available for pre-orders!

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A Few Updates...

Been a busy last couple of weeks on my end, which may be why you aren't seeing as in-depth forecasts and as frequent forecasts as usual. Currently working on finishing a thesis project entitled "Synoptic Environments Associated with Significant Tornadoes in the Contiguous United States". Once it is completed I will be sure to post a link here and give some more information about it... My plan is to have it fairly well finished over Thanksgiving break next week, meaning only touch-ups have to made before it is ready to be presented on Dec. 8th. A few other school projects were mixed in last week, and then throw in the GRE (Graduate School Admissions Test) to finish off the week with enough stress for the entire semester!

This week is calmer, with the looking forward to next weeks' long vacation to get work done. Nonetheless, still plenty to be done before I can really relax and get into some great forecasting.

I will likely have another update later this week or very early next week pertaining to a photo book that I will be releasing. So if you've enjoyed some of the photography that I've had on here before, and are looking forward to some new pictures be ready to purchase this book! It will likely be available in both hardcover and softcover, and be a 10x8" book full of high quality color pictures!

As for the weather, the lows on Tuesday morning were definitely in the chilly category ranging from 11 degrees in Spencer and Estherville to the lower 20s in a few southern locations. This mornings' temperatures were much better in the mid 20s to lower 30s, but a cold front currently sweeping across the state hamper the highs for much of the state. Windy and chilly conditions for the latter half of the week mean some wind chills that most will not enjoy. The forecasts are also leaning to a brief system that will likely sweep down through the state on Friday night. With limited moisture and its' quick movement, it isn't likely to be anything special, but with the cold temperatures we'll definitely see some snowfall with minor accumulations being possible for parts of the state.

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September 23 Lightning Pictures

I decided that I would upload some of the pictures that I took last night of the lightning near Ames, Iowa between 8 PM and around 9 PM. I was positioned southwest of Ames waiting for the storms to arrive, they were previously severe warned, but at the time of arrival to my location the storms featured only 40 mph winds and some heavy rain. The lightning even within the core of the storm was quite impressive, several CG strikes that were nearby to create amazing thunder.

The images that I captured were definitely not the greatest, as the heavy rains and windy conditions meant that I couldn't pull out the tripod. This led me to capture all of the images featured by holding the camera against the door frame and using manual shutter release. Another problem with the photos was the manual focus was off, creating many of the images to look 'soft' or in other words, the lightning isn't the sharpest that it could have been. Either way, no amazing shots that I really missed out on, so chalk it up as having to be more prepared next time.

September 23 Lightning Gallery

As you can see, this is a new type of setup that I have for this gallery. I believe that with time I will make all my galleries in this format, or some variation of sorts. Using the flash slideshow leaves the images clearer, and with less distortion compared to my ongoing gallery I have now. Let me know what you think of the new format, and which one you'd rather see!

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First Fall Thunderstorms

A large line of thunderstorms has formed from the Canadian border through the Dakotas and into central Nebraska. A few of these storms have been severe warned for the possibility of both large hail and damaging winds. These storms should continue to move northeastward overnight tonight, as the cold front responsible for these storms also slowly slides eastward.

This cold front will continue to move eastward during the day tomorrow, reaching Iowa by the afternoon hours. This front will move across Iowa, and likely slow as the upper level features begin to pull off to the north. The front should exit the state during the early morning hours of Wednesday, taking a majority of the precipitation with it. Total rain amounts with the storms during the afternoon and overnight tomorrow could be fairly high, with plenty of moisture available and continued lift along the cold front. Anywhere from a half inch to an inch may be possible with the strongest storms. These strong storms may be able to produce an isolated strong wind gust during the afternoon hours, with a very small chance that a storm could reach severe limits given the limited instability and shear.

Although there is a limited severe threat, the timing across central Iowa may bring the thunderstorms through just after dusk. This means the potential for some lightning photography if the storms are cooperative, so I may have updates tomorrow evening on the storms if they are strong. Otherwise, look for some moderate to heavy rainfall tomorrow across the state from the morning hours through the afternoon in western Iowa; then over central Iowa overnight and through eastern Iowa by Noon on Wednesday.

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Fall Semester 2008

My final post on the blog during the summer of 2008, as I return to classes at Iowa State University tomorrow. This upcoming semester looks like it will be fairly light as far as classwork goes, having only 3 classes: American Indian Studies, Synoptic Meteorology, and Dynamic Meteorology II. But, I also have a 'small' project called senior thesis that I will have to be working on throughout the semester. Other credits for this semester will come from my internship at KICD Radio over the summer. I will also be starting a new internship this semester, I will be a student volunteer at the National Weather Service office in Des Moines, IA.

With my three classes, internship, and senior thesis project, along with all of the other things I usually try to do I should stay fairly busy. I have a few other things that I will like to be doing throughout the semester, including getting some finalized chase summaries on my website, instead of just my blog like they are now. I also want to try to get some new photo galleries up, maybe revamping my current galleries, and editing some previous pictures. Not to mention my potential television debut this fall with the National Geographic show that I was a part of with Tim Samaras, and another mini-show that I believe will be aired on PBS this fall.

Plenty of things going on, and I will try to keep this updated with some of those stories along with your daily weather updates that everybody enjoys. Look forward to maybe having some more photography opportunities too...

Another update with this weeks' forecast is coming tomorrow! After a chilly start this morning...

Note: Almost forgot to mention this again, but thanks to all who visit as the blog surpassed the 10,000 visitor mark last week!

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August 14 Storm Images

I was sent a few pictures of the storms that were rolling across portions of central Iowa last night by Rob Wadsworth, from Alta, IA. He managed to grab some nice images of the entire storm that was located over Hamilton county from near Pocahontas, IA. This storm was severe warned for a short while, with the potential to produce nickel sized hail and damaging winds. The only report from this storm was a measured 59 mph gust near Williams, IA.




Images courtesy Rob Wadsworth


I'm glad readers can enjoy the blog, and feel free to send me any stories/pictures that you have of storms while they are near you and you may also be a part of the postings here on the Iowa Chaser blog!

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August 9 - Tornado near Clare, IA

Unique situation occurred yesterday over portions of northwest Iowa, with several small thunderstorms developing along a weak cold frontal boundary that was draped over that portion of the state. The thunderstorms that developed were fairly weak, no hail or damaging winds were expected, and they remained fairly low-topped (image below). The very steep lapse rates that were noted throughout the low levels, did create the unique situation in which it allowed the fast stretching of the column of air. This stretching combined with some low level shear, allowed for several funnels to form with these thunderstorms. Areas around Mason City had a thunderstorm with several funnels reported around 4:30 PM yesterday. Other storms developed after 5 PM, with additional funnels being reported near Lake Park, IA and the Spirit Lake, IA area around 6 PM.

The highlight of the day came with another storm, developing after 6 PM and being isolated to the northwest of Fort Dodge. This storm had enough stretching and good enough updraft to sustain this funnel, and allowed for a few brief touchdowns. This did prompt a tornado warning for portions of Webster county, as the tornado was reported by several sources, including a pilot who as on his way to land at the Fort Dodge airport.

Being a Saturday afternoon, it seemed like everybody had their camera with them and snapping pictures of this funnel near Clare, IA and Barnum, IA. You supposedly could see this funnel and storm from nearly 30 miles away as it was quite isolated. To view the entire list of emails and pictures with all of the funnels yesterday, take a look at the case file from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

I've also uploaded a few pictures from the Clare, Barnum, and Fort Dodge area for you to enjoy to look at.


Image taken by Jim Gargano, near Clare, IA just after 7 PM.


Image taken by Mark Phillips, from the Deer Creek Golf Course.


Image by Lois Shimon, taken just after 7 PM near Fort Dodge, IA.


Image taken by Michael Larsen; Funnel/rainbow located near Manson, IA.

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Vacation (Days 3 & 4)

The vacation continues, with a visit to a few more places on Friday morning in Sedona, AZ. Grabbed a few more panoramic images that can be stitched together later... We then continued south into the 'hot' portion of Arizona, Phoenix, spending the rest of the afternoon in a pool in Scottsdale. Went to the Arizona Diamondbacks and LA Dodgers on Friday night, a great 11 inning game which saw the Dodgers coming out on top. Was also treated to some nice fireworks after the game, which was viewable from a portion of the upper deck at Chase Field. (Images below)





Saturday (Day 4) was spent traveling from Phoenix, AZ to Anaheim, CA. Arrived there and went to see the Pacific Ocean at Huntington Beach, where the water was very chilly. Only spent a few minutes grabbing some pictures there and wading in the water. California really didn't seem like that great of a place to me, the weather was cool which wasn't too bad, but the overall conditions there including the terrible smog that ruins all sorts of scenery were definitely not something that I could spend time looking at.

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Vacation (Day 2)

Left Flagstaff, AZ in the morning en route to the Grand Canyon, drove through a large portion of the National Forest that is located throughout northern Arizona. A lot of scenic views, so plenty of pictures yesterday... A view from the Grand Canyon:



After the visit to the Grand Canyon we headed south to view areas of the Oak Creek Valley and Sedona, AZ. Found ourselves a nice view of Oak Creek off of the highway to take some pictures, etc. Nice spring fed creek that was clear as can be! Explored the town of Sedona and its' views last evening and this morning... A lot of panoramic pictures that will have to be stitched together once I get back home. A last couple pictures of the creek that we found, and just one of the many great red sandstone formations that make up Sedona and its' views.

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Hello from Arizona!

Left for vacation yesterday morning, driving from northwest Iowa to Des Moines, IA Airport. From there, flew into Las Vegas, NV during the afternoon and picked up the rental car to make the way into Arizona. Went over the Hoover Dam, and then drove through Arizona to arrive at our nighttime destination of Flagstaff, AZ.

A visit to the Grand Canyon today, and then dropping south to view Sedona, AZ and all of its' natural features. Throwing on a few images of yesterdays' visit below...

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More Lightning!

I made myself get up this morning so I would have time to edit at least a portion of the photos from last night. I have a dozen of the 'best' images from last night online in my gallery pages for you to enjoy now. There are nearly 50 images that at least have some sort of lightning strike in them, but quite a few are of nearly the same type of strike so I kept it down on the repeats. Two of the best ones are shown below, otherwise enjoy all of them in the July 15 Lightning Gallery.

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Lightning!!

I finally managed to do it! A storm at night, that was actually isolated cells instead of a huge line, that put off a decent lightning show. I was out taking photos from around 11:20 PM until 12:45 AM, managed nearly 120 images over that time with at least half of them with some type of strikes. Getting ready for vacation, and editing the 90 pictures from tonight's Estherville-Lincoln-Central vs Storm Lake baseball game.

I did put one image online as sort of a teaser to what some of the images may hold. This image is completely unedited, it was converted to jpeg and then resized for website upload. The image is one of many that contains the storm, its' lightning, and the clear sky and its' stars above. Hope you enjoy the teaser image, and I'll be sure to update the blog when I do get all of the images edited and online (may be awhile!).

Check out the next posting to see some of the photos!

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A Welcome Home!

The National Guard First Battalion 194th Field Artillery Battery A stationed out of Estherville, IA got a welcome home celebration yesterday, July 11. They found themselves 'home' shortly before 2 PM yesterday, as they entered the Estherville-Lincoln-Cenral High School football field at that time. A few general speeches were made by the local mayor, and other officers, before the troops were finally given their 'dismissed' orders. Upon that, families and friends of the troops were rushing onto the field to give their soldiers the greetings' that they deserved.

Oh, almost forgot one special event, just before the end of the ceremony, Angela Stewart was proposed to by Sergeant Dotson of Pocahontas, Iowa. You can see a couple of those images below, given the second one of the set, I think it was safe to assume it was a 'yes'. More images besides the ones below can be seen online, National Guard Gallery.

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Sports Photography

This past week has been fairly busy on the photography end, as I've recently begun a new part-time job working for a local newspaper, Lakes Pride. Four straight nights of traveling around to the local softball and baseball fields, gathering pictures to be used in the paper. Besides being used for the paper, all of the pictures have been uploaded to my gallery for parents, etc. to view and purchase if they wish.

For any people that are local to the area, the teams I have been covering include:

Armstrong-Ringsted, Estherville, Okoboji, Spirit Lake, Graettinger/Terril, and Harris-Lake Park. To view the latest galleries, please check out the Sports Gallery or view the front page of Jayson Prentice Photography for direct links to your sports team of interest.

Beyond sports photography, I'll be updating the Landscape section of the gallery with a few stormscapes, etc. from storm chasing this past spring. I am also still available for portraits throughout July and the first half of August, this includes family portraits, senior portraits, or any others that you may be interested in. For more information on any of my photography, please check out the website:

Jayson Prentice Photography

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Traveling Home

On the road this morning out of Wichita, KS in-route to the soggy state of Iowa. I'm sure it has been covered extensively by all of the local and national media, so I don't feel the need to go through all of the areas that have been getting hit hard or all the details on who/where is evacuated. Several roads are closed throughout the state, thus the route on my way home is even effected between Ames and Terril. It may be a while before we can see the rivers truly drop to levels that aren't threatening to flood with every rainfall, even with some breaks in the storm systems.

The last two days of chasing have been frustrating to say the least with storm development being along a cold front, creating a line of storms. Wednesday storms were both linear or embedded within a line, not to mention movement to the northeast over 40 mph. We did manage one tornado out of this storm, essentially coming up on it as it formed just to our east. Otherwise some scary scud and outflow shelf formations on the storms, along with some amazing cloud-to-ground lightning.
Thursday was slightly better, even though we managed to miss the tornadoes in southern Kansas. The structure with the storms was amazing, with a great wall cloud and lightning with the first storm. Managed to capture 3 lightning strikes handheld during the day/evening; with additional strikes at night. Quite a few great panoramic images should come out of the storms yesterday, as the structure once they went outflow was impressive. One picture that I do hope turned out was an image of the striated storm just to the east of Wichita late last night. It was the best nighttime storm that I have ever personally seen, with constant thunder and lightning strikes. The storms were impressive nonetheless, it just seemed as if the storms struggled to produce beings they were in such a line fashion along the front.

On the next ~6 hours on the road I have I will likely begin to get pictures edited, see what I can manage for panoramics, and lightning. It looks like any chasing has came to an end for a while with ridging likely across the plains. Even with the ridging, it still looks like thunderstorms may be possible, however, nothing significant appears likely.

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A Collection of 2008 Storm Chasing Images

Beings I've finally been getting some of my images online from the chasing that I've done over the past month, I thought I'd share. To view the complete collection of images, check out my 2008 Storm Chasing Gallery that I'll be adding to throughout the summer. All images below stretch from a May 22 to May 25 stretch that was spent on tornadic storms in the western half of Kansas.


Kansas Rope Tornado



Hoxie, KS Wedge Tornado



HP Supercell Panoramic



Quinter, KS First Tornado)



Central Kansas Wall Cloud

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Summer Plans 2008

Finished my last final ~11:15 AM on Thursday, got back to my apartment to finish packing things and was on my way home in the early afternoon. It is finally summer, but that doesn't mean I'll be taking it too easy for the next 3 months. I'll be running my own business (Jayson Prentice Photography), having an internship (KICD Radio, Spencer, IA), storm chasing (TWISTEX 2008), and probably having an actual job later this summer (Monsanto).

Staring off with my summer plans, I've started up my own 'part-time' business out of my local area of northwest Iowa, Jayson Prentice Photography. I'm offering several of my landscape prints for sale, and outdoor portraits sessions for your family, children, and soon-to-be graduating seniors. I will also be doing a lot of athletics photos of local sports teams, mainly Graettinger/Terril, but potentially others as well if there is interest.

I will once again be 'working' at KICD Radio in Spencer, IA this year. This time around it will be for a college credit internship, so you can expect me to be at the studio there one or two days a week throughout the summer. I'll likely pick days where we can have at least some interesting weather, or the day before so I can have the whole day to forecast the event.

You may remember last June, where I was storm chasing with Tim Samaras and others as a part of TWISTEX. This year TWISTEX is once again back despite funding issues with Iowa State, the ISU Crew will consist of one mesonet car that will mainly be involved with attempts to sample RFD areas of thunderstorms. The car will be under directions from Bruce Lee and Kathy Finley of WindLogics, Inc. Today the TWISTEX crew is down in far eastern Oklahoma where a significant severe weather threat is in place, previous obligations left me unable to chase with them today. However, from Sunday through May 22nd I will be a part of the TWISTEX crew whenever we are active. Currently the first day of chasing for me and the TWISTEX crew looks to be next Tuesday and potentially next Wednesday. Then the flow hits the fan, with northwesterly winds throughout the mid-levels for a majority of my scheduled time with the crew.

A few final things for this summer will include my potential employment at Monsanto for the months of July/August. I worked last year during the pollination season in their test plots, helping them in the process of seed testing. This year I may be a crew leader instead, providing me with a little more money per hour and the ability to be in charge of a few high schoolers ;) .
Another 'job' for this summer will be getting started on my senior thesis that is coming up for my final fall semester as an undergraduate at Iowa State. I will likely be working in collaboration with a current SPC study that is looking at significant tornado outbreak days and some of the conditions that were a part of those outbreaks.

With all of that going on, I'll be sure to put up forecasts for the state and surrounding areas throughout the summer. You'll likely see the blog very busy whenever the threat of severe weather is upon the state of Iowa or anywhere else in the central US if I'm chasing it. Be sure to let me know what you want to hear or what you want to see on the blog by leaving a comment. Enjoy the summer!

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Fall Photography at Ledges State Park

Finished getting all of my photos uploaded this morning. Came away with a few good ones, didn't turn out as great as I thought it would have. I'm mainly going to blame this on the time of day I took quite a few of the shots, the bright afternoon sun definitely is not a friend when doing landscape pictures. Either way, a total of 8 pictures have been added to my Ledges Gallery Page.

Check out the Gallery

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