The three months of the year known as meteorological winter are now in the books and preliminary data shows that high and low temperatures were below average for the period. The featured chart presents these averages and the last four winters have been on the cold side. But now we can focus on March and hopes for a warm spring! March will begin like a lamb with highs in the 40s today.

The first day of March was a very pleasant day with sunshine and temperatures in the upper 40s and 50s. One almost forgot about winter and hoped the end of meteorological winter was the end of the actual winter season as well. But then, a cold front swept the state during the evening and dropped temperatures below freezing and a brisk wind pushed wind chills to values below zero in some locations. The featured chart shows the change for Denison from a high yesterday of 57 to a wind chill of -5 this morning.

The numbers on the featured plot show the yearly average March temperature for Iowa. The location of the number represents the spatial center of mass for all the severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings issued for March during that year. The map is attempting to show the relationship between average temperature in Iowa to the favoured are to where severe weather happens. The warmest temperatures mostly appear to the west and north in this map, which makes some logical sense as warmer weather would promote severe weather further north near Iowa. The coldest temperatures imply that severe weather is pushed to the south away from the state. The limited area of this plot also suggests that most of the severe weather happens in this area during March.

Temperatures warmed nicely on Thursday pushing 50 degrees for Ames. The featured chart presents the number of days with the high temperature above 50 and the number with the high below freezing since the beginning of the year. This winter has seen its fair share of cold days with this being the fifth straight year with more than average number of cold days. At this date last year, we had yet to see 50 degrees at all, so this year has been an improvement! Colder temperatures are here for this weekend with highs back below freezing.

While the lengthening days and warmer temperatures of March can make winter fell like it has gone away, the cold and snow of winter is still common in March. The featured chart presents the partitioning of yearly snowfall between dates prior to 1 March and those afterward. The 1to1 line shows that getter more snow after 1 March than before is rather uncommon, so our total so far of around 30 inches has little chance of being doubled this spring. Getting another 3-12 inches is common and the forecast this week looks to work on those totals with heavy snow possible in Iowa on Tuesday.

Our next storm system is gathering to bring rain and snow to the state on Tuesday into Wednesday. The featured chart is of different forecasts of snowfall for the upcoming period for Mason City. The totals range from 3.5 to 7.5 inches. A big question is if temperatures will warm enough to support more rain than snow. There seems to be little doubt that up to an inch of precipitation will fall over a good portion of the state.

There has seemingly been no shortage of storms this winter season with another large system impacting Iowa this evening. The featured chart presents the areal coverage over Iowa of RADAR returns since the first of December. You could consider each of the chart spikes as another storm system. Outside of a quite stretch in February, the chart is quite noisy indicative of the active winter.

Our latest winter storm is now in the books having dumped very wet snow over a good portion of the state. Actual depths of snow did not get too deep, but it was a very wet causing a lot of pain to move around. The good news for snow-haters is that very warm air will make quick work of this latest round of snow.

High temperatures are struggling so far today thanks to our recent snowfall and being on the cold side of a departing area of surface high pressure. The featured chart presents the high temperature for a day after snowfall as recorded from the long term stations near Ames. The favored temperature is clearly around or just below freezing, which makes sense with all the newly deposited snow around. The greater the snowfall, the more likely the next day temperature will be below freezing, which makes sense as well. Much warmer air is set to arrive tomorrow and rid us of most of this new snow.

A refreshing push of much warmer air make it into the state today and sure makes things feel much more like spring, but is the spring season actually here? If one thinks about winter as being the 91 (1/4 year) coldest days of the year, then perhaps spring has already arrived. The featured chart looks at the coldest (avg high+low) 91 day period for Ames and a fit line is placed on the end of the period. The fit would indicate that spring is coming a bit earlier than in the past. The colors of the bars represent the quartile of the average temperature for the winter season. A number of the bars push well into March, but the forecast for the next week looks very warm, so based on this metric, we are probably in spring now!

Temperatures struggled on Sunday to rise above freezing over a good portion of the state. The featured chart presents the observed frequency of having the high or low temperature below freezing for a given day in March. While having low temperatures below freezing is still very common for the 13th of March, having the high temperature below freezing is a once every 5 years event. Warmer temperatures are in the forecast for this with highs in the 50s and 60s!

For some of you, your clocks are now accurate again after our recent switch back into Daylight Savings Time. Of course, we are not saving anything as the hour of sunshine in the evening is at the expense of an hour of sunshine in the morning. The featured image shows the transport of sunshine into the evening hours. The devil is involved in this process as it encourages an extra hour of sleep in the morning before the sun-provoked rooster wakes you up.

The featured chart presents the highest forecasted surface based convective available potential energy (CAPE) from the GFS model for a grid point near Ames since the first of the year. This variable gives an indication to the degree of instability in the atmosphere that helps to facilitate thunderstorms. Values above 1,000 typically are when the stronger storms are possible. While values shown are well below 1,000 for surface based air parcels, CAPE computed for elevated parcels is expected to be larger and will allow for some hail producing storms in the coming week.

Temperatures soared on Wednesday into the 60s for most of Iowa and a repeat performance is expected today. Is it the luck of the Irish to see two days above 60 in a row in March? The featured chart shows that the probability of seeing a day above 60 after a day above 60 is around 50%, so we are only somewhat lucky! Temperatures return to near normal values on Friday along with numerous chances of rain.

Temperatures on Thursday were again well above average for this time of year. The featured map shows high temperature departures for the 17th of March and Iowa enjoyed temperatures 15-30 degrees above average. Cooler weather has returned today along with chances of rain, but temperatures will stay above freezing to keep our snow chances at a minimum.

Moisture has been on the increase to celebrate our start to the spring season. The featured chart shows the observed dew point temperature for the Ames Airport since the beginning of the year. The increase in moisture is helping to fuel thunderstorms with some of them producing hail on Sunday. Severe weather is possible for the next two days and then much cooler weather expected for the rest of the week.

Storms bringing hail have been frequenting the state these past few days with more expected today. The featured chart presents the frequency of hail observations based on National Weather Service local storm reports since 2003. The top chart shows hail to be most common during the spring and summer months. The bottom chart shows the late afternoon as being the most favored time for hail. The late afternoon is typically when the atmosphere is at its most unstable condition after the sun has heated the ground for most of the day. Hail can occur at any time of day and certainly during the night time hours.

Iowa's first real taste of severe weather season arrived on Tuesday with a powerful low pressure system pushing through the state late in the afternoon. Numerous frontal boundaries were present over southern Iowa late Tuesday afternoon and helped to spin up some brief tornadoes. The featured image from Tyler Love of Creston shows the photogenic tornado on the northwest side of town. Major temperature changes are in store with a return to winter like conditions for the remainder of the week.

The featured chart presents a recent time series of air temperature and wind chill values for Shenandoah Iowa since Sunday. Very warm air for this time of year has given way to a colder air mass with highs expected to struggle in the 30s and low 40s for the next week! Average highs should be around 50.

Snow is once again visiting the state today even after a day that reminded us of spring with severe storms and tornadoes. The featured map is from the IEM Freeze application showing the combination of NEXRAD, RWIS pavement temperatures (dots), and air temperatures. Only a few inches of snow will fall for some lucky few, but more chances of snow are in the forecast along with cold temperatures.

While it was not much for a winter storm, it did dump upwards of 4 inches of snow over extreme southwestern Iowa and probably should be included in the listing of storms for this winter season! Most of this snow melted by later in the day. Heavier amounts occurred over Missouri and more snow even fell today.

Our recent stretch of weather has seen high temperatures struggle in the 30s, which is well below climatological average for this time of year. The featured chart presents the number of days one would have to go in order to match the current day's high temperature with climatology. For example, the high temperature yesterday is what we would have expected for a high 22 days ago. The warm days in February stick out with one day having a high temperature that what our average high is for mid April. Warmer temperatures are in the forecast for the end of the week!

Our current stretch of seasonably cool weather continues with snow and freezing drizzle frequenting the state this morning. The featured chart shows high and low temperatures for Des Moines for the past 7 days along with climatology. That 60 degree temperature seems like an eternity ago. There is hope that 50s will return this weekend!

The featured chart presents the combination of average high temperature for the first seven days of April versus the last seven days of March. This year's average is expected to end up around 42 degrees, which is cool but not the coolest values shown on the chart. The average for the first seven days of April is around 58 degrees and you can see that only a few years with such a cool last part of March were able to be above normal for the beginning of April.

Yesterday was a remarkably calm day for late March with the peak wind speed reported at the Des Moines Airport (based on the hourly obs) of a mere 8 mph. The featured chart presents the maximum reported wind speed for each March 30th going back to the late 1940s. This year's value is the lowest to be found on the chart. March will end with another mostly calm day with a chance of rain. Blustery weather arrives on Saturday!