***Official 2024 Weather Thread***
- Thread starter wxman1
- Start date
I use MyRadar for everyday purposes (where's the rain? where's the lightning? where are the watches/warnings?).
RadarScope is nice for looking at specific cells, toggling through different radar options.
wX is a free, open-source app that gives you a LOT of features that the other apps require a subscription for. It isn't super easy to use at first, but the learning curve isn't too bad.
I use all three on Android, but all three are available for apple as well.
| U.S. Drought Monitor
droughtmonitor.unl.edu
Still in a moderate drought, although just on the edge. Rivers have been out of their banks for a couple weeks now, Field ponds have shrunk but not disappeared during the same time, lakes are above average levels.......not sure how much more rain it will take to get to just abnormally dry.
| U.S. Drought Monitor
Still in a moderate drought, although just on the edge. Rivers have been out of their banks for a couple weeks now, Field ponds have shrunk but not disappeared during the same time, lakes are above average levels.......not sure how much more rain it will take to get to just abnormally dry.
Abnormally dry for me with water everywhere, with another short inch from last night to now.
Cyclonepride
Thought Police
If there's one thing that is certain this year, it's that Thursday brings **** weather to go with my Thursday afternoon tee time.
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Keep in mind that if the rain falls too fast over a short period of time, the water will run off into lakes. rivers. creeks. That doesn't help much with improving drought conditions. The best rains to improve drought conditions are the light to moderate, all day rain events. Those rains will soak into the ground much better than downpours| U.S. Drought Monitor
Still in a moderate drought, although just on the edge. Rivers have been out of their banks for a couple weeks now, Field ponds have shrunk but not disappeared during the same time, lakes are above average levels.......not sure how much more rain it will take to get to just abnormally dry.
I think we have kinda forgotten that in a "normal " year it always rains a lot in the spring.
This year it's perfect weather for growing stuff. Rain every third day or so and sunny the next two. My grass is needing mowed like every three days. It's crazy
Honestly I prefer this tilt in moisture. Would rather be on the moderate drought side than the moderate flooding or threat of moderate flooding side.
Over the last 14 years or so "normal" has been more like the maximum. Here is a graph I put together averaging rainfall totals from airport data across the state since 2010. Rainfall total on left and percent of normal (34 inches) on right. If you assume normal distribution the odds of only having 2 years in that stretch where we barely reach the mean is pretty darn low. May be time to consider a new "normal" for Iowa.
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Yeah maybe so. Not sure how they calculate "normal". I would think there would be more weight assigned to recent years as opposed to 100 years ago.
Maybe they're using the climatological average, where they average a 30-year span and update that every decade? I think we just moved into a new 30-year window recently.
Cyclonepride
Thought Police
We are pretty short on accurate, widespread regional data, and it seems that we operate by extrapolating more recent accurate data and then making some assumptions based on what we do know. The "1 in a thousand years" or "1 in 500 years" events could well be much more common that we think.
It's true that we have only had really accurate widespread weather data for a relatively short period of time, but the take home message is that relative to that time we have had accurate data the last ten plus years in Iowa have been incredibly dry. Who knows, this year could be a start of a 10 to fifteen year pattern of wet weather, but if current trends hold up its a definite concern.
I know, but these ponds aren’t running anywhere.
Also checked and USGS had groundwater at 19 inches from ground surface. That would be pretty close to completely full in my book.
I could be mistaken but I thought I read the "normal" for rain, temp, etc. is the average of the previous 5 years, so in effect a floating average
No one seems to know for sure. Not saying they aren't doing it that way but a 5 year floating average would seem to be to short a time period.
I shouldn't have said "normal", how about the average since 1895, when we started keeping official climate records, is in the ball park of 33 to 34 inches for the state. Most people are going to consider normal for Iowa anywhere from 32 to 36 inches based on data, but it varies quite a bit from NW (drier) to SE (wetter) in the state.
U.S. Climate Normals
The U.S. Climate Normals are a large suite of data products that provide information about typical climate conditions for thousands of locations across the United States. Normals act both as a ruler to compare today’s weather and tomorrow’s forecast, and as a predictor of conditions in the near...
