With the new calendar year, it is probably a good time to reflect back on 2011. The previous year will be remembered as an infamous year for deadly tornadoes in the US. The featured chart presents the yearly total of NWS issued severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings dating back to 1986 along with the total area covered by these warnings. The area value is expressed in normalized units of the size of the continental United States. For example, enough warnings were issued this past year to cover the CONUS seven times over. The total number of warnings came in slightly behind 2008. The large drop in areal coverage of warnings is due to the change to storm based warnings in 2008, which warns for only partial areas of counties.

Continuing along in the series of features reviewing the past year, we consider the precipitation departure from average for the year. Most of the state saw below average precipitation, which goes against a recent trend of having very wet years. Most of northwest Iowa is now analyzed in a severe drought condition with some concerns of limited soil moisture recharge before next spring.

The weather looks to be good for the Iowa Presidential Caucus this evening with dry conditions and temperatures just above freezing forecasted. The featured chart presents air temperatures reported around 7 PM at Des Moines for past caucus dates.

Continuing to look back on 2011, we look today at the monthly temperature and precipitation percentiles. The right most bars display the percentile value for the entire year. For comparison, the Ames value is compared with the statewide areal average. The highlights of the year include a warm July and December along with a cold and dry September.

Wow! The first question after a day like today is how bad the weather will get later this winter to pay for this. Record high temperatures were set over most of Iowa today as shown by the featured analysis computed by the IEM. The NW quarter of the state has seen high temperatures best the previous record by over 10 degrees in spots! Tomorrow will continue the warmth, but not this warm with highs back in the 40s and 50s (still well above average).

The meteorological winter season (1 Dec - 28 Feb) has started off being one of the warmer ones on record. Does a warm start to date of winter mean a colder end? The featured chart compares the average temperature for winter before and after 8 January. From this analyis, 2012 is the fifth warmest statewide since 1893. There is plenty of spread in the chart, so it is hard to say how bad the rest of our winter will be. The next week looks to be mostly on the warm side with a brief bout of near average temperatures.

The big story this winter continues to be the warmth and lack of snow. Even our coldest temperature reading so far this winter season is at record levels for most of the state as shown by the featured map. The featured map presents the percentile value for this winter season's minimum temperature compared against the same period for previous winters. Values of 100% would indicate that this winter has seen the warmest minimum temperature for the season so far. High temperatures today are expected to reach near daily record levels again!

After yet another very warm day for January, the featured chart presents another metric showing how warm this winter has been so far. This time the number of hours with a wind chill reading below 0 Fahrenheit for Des Moines is presenting showing this year's total only slightly ahead of 1954 and 2002 since 1933. The situation is about to change with colder air arriving and windy conditions for the next few days. The extended forecast does look to be warmer again next week.

Our remarkable stretch of warm January weather came to an abrupt end on Wednesday thanks to a very strong cold front plowing through the state bringing some snow along with it. The high temperatures, before the front passed through, hit record levels over portions of eastern Iowa and with snow falling today, creates the unique situation of having a record high temperature followed by snow the next day. The featured chart presents an IEM computed analysis of the most recent occurrence of having snowfall on the day after a record high temperature for some long term sites in the state. There are caveats galore with this data due to issues with snowfall data quality and the nature of daily climate observation times being at 7 AM (long story). Heavier snowfall totals are expected over eastern Iowa, so the bottom portion of the chart presents the most recent occurrence where the snowfall was four inches or more. In general, these events are rare and getting heavy snowfall is even more rare. Note: the record high temperature was computed up until that date since the beginning of the record.

It has been a while since our last winter storm, but winter has returned dumping the heaviest snowfall totals over eastern Iowa as shown by the featured map. The western half of Iowa missed out as the storm system rapidly intensified while its center was east of the state. There was plenty of wind with this storm system as well making for travel difficulties.

The high temperature you experienced on Sunday in Iowa was very dependent on the amount of snow you received from our storm last week. Warm air surged into the state, but thanks to snow cover over eastern Iowa temperatures were much cooler than the mid 50s over western Iowa. This contrast is nicely shown by overlaying high temperatures on Sunday to visible imagery showing areas with and without snow. The forecast for this week looks to be active with another warm up expected next weekend.

This past Sunday was the fifth day this January that the high temperature has hit or exceeded 50 degrees for Ames. This feat is rather remarkable considering that we did not surpass 50 in each of the past five years and this total prior to 17 January ties the previous most back in 1928. Will this year end up like 1928 and not have any days over 50 for the rest of the month? The forecast does have a slim chance of hitting 50 again next Sunday after a series of winter storms this week.

After a respite from winter, we have had two snow storms in the past week. The most recent storm brought a lot of wind and snowfall totals mostly less than four inches to parts of the state. We have yet to see a massive winter storm hit the state this winter, but the long range forecast models are teasing a big storm for next week. Until then, there are more chances of snow as our weather pattern remains active.

The featured chart presents the minimum temperature each winter for Minneapolis up until 18 January. If Minneapolis would have stayed above zero Fahrenheit on Wednesday, it would have been the latest date into the winter they have gone without a sub zero temperature. A strong cold front plowing through late last night and dropped the temperature to -1 just before midnight! "Missed it by that much!" Anyway, full blown winter has returned and today's weather certainly makes it feel like what the calendar indicates: the middle of winter!

The featured chart presents the percentage of days this winter (since 1 Dec) has been warmer than previous winters. Each day this winter is compared with the same day of the year for previous winters. The bars shown in blue are years with more days colder that winter than this one. So we have another plot showing how warm this winter has been so far, but our weather pattern has changed and normal winter has returned to Iowa. Snow will fall today and there is more snow in the forecast!

Our most recent winter storm is now in the books with folks in northern Iowa being the lucky ones picking up around 5-8 inches of light and fluffy snow. This storm caused major problems east of us in Chicago as it hit during rush hour on Friday causing most of the city's thoroughfares to become parking lots. Our next winter storm arrives tonight with a better chance of freezing rain and snow on Sunday.

I started posting IEM Daily Feature's back in early 2002 as a means to get people to visit the website daily and also highlight plots that show interesting weather and climate data. Today's feature is the 2,500th one in the series, so the presented plot looks at the time of day this feature message is posted each day. The plot illustrates the process of aging for human males with activities starting earlier in the morning with the passing years. If the trend continues, I'll be posting daily features at 3 AM in the year 2022! Hehe.

The storm system that unfortunately brought deadly tornadoes to the southern US also produced rain, sleet, and snow for Iowa. The featured analysis presents reported snowfall totals, which did not amount to much but created very difficult travel conditions. Our recent stretch of an active winter looks to be settling down some with temperatures back above freezing.

Our typical full fledged winter of the past few years has been no where to be found this year. The featured chart presents a time series of hourly air temperature reports along with the daily climatological range. Our coldest period of the year on average is now behind us and the lengthening days start to remind us that spring is not that far away. The near term forecast does not have much winter in store with daily chances of melting snow rather than falling snow.

After a devastating year of damaging severe weather, 2012 is starting off active with the number of warnings issued second to only 2008 since 2002. More severe weather is possible today over the southeast US.

Minneapolis was featured last week for tying the latest date into the winter season it has gone before hitting a zero degree or lower temperature. The featured image looks at the minimum temperature to date for Des Moines. This year is with a handful of others to not see a sub zero temperature by this date. The warmest minimum temperature for the entire winter was zero for 1930-1931, so there is a chance we could best that mark this year. There is plenty of winter to go yet.

These little snow storms may not be worth the time to document, but they do add to the winter snowfall totals and winter storm counts so might as well! The featured analysis of snowfall reports from our most recent snow generator show amounts mostly at or below an inch. Most of this snow will not stick around long with above freezing temperatures expected this weekend. Some more light snowfall totals are expected this evening across northern Iowa.

The featured map presents an IEM analysis of the departure of days below freezing (daily high temperature below freezing) this winter has seen versus previous. Much of the Midwest is shown in the 10 to 25 days below average. The most extreme departures show up in Minnesota and North Dakota. The warm winter continues this week with forecasted temperatures approaching record warm levels today.

Yesterday was just another typical day in January for Iowa with high temperature soaring into the lower 60s! The featured chart presents the average temperature accumulated rank by day since 1 December for Ames. We are currently at 5th warmest on record with another month of meteorological winter (1 Dec - 28 Feb) to go. The forecast for this week continues the warm weather with a chance of snow arriving this weekend.