The featured chart displays the areal coverage of the drought monitor categories for Iowa since 1 Jan 2012. This winter has seen some small improvements in the state, but we still have a long ways to go. The calendar is now March, so our ability to put larger dents in the long term precipitation deficits are increased. The most recent drought monitor did not include our large snowstorm on Tuesday, but most of the precipitation from the event was in the Eastern half of the state. The most severe drought categories remain over western Iowa.

Our next winter storm system arrived overnight and has dumped a few inches of snow along with gusty east-southeast winds. Is it common to have snow being reported along with winds from the ESE? The featured chart presents a wind rose that summarizes observations from the Des Moines Airport when falling snow is also reported. The preferred direction is clearly NW. The least frequent direction is southwest, which is a wind direction that typically brings us warm weather and also implies a storm system center that is to our west and north due to how air flows around low pressure systems.

The first of back to back winter storms dumped just a few inches over parts of Eastern Iowa on Monday. The second storm system is here this morning with the heaviest totals again over eastern Iowa. This system will truck it east and is expected to cause trouble in the Washington DC area. Western Iowa has missed out again and they certainly have the greatest need for moisture. After this storm system, warmer weather will be here with snow melting temperatures near 40.

The second of our back to back snow storms dumped much more snow than the first. It also brought strong winds which caused blowing snow that impacted travel. Western Iowa missed out again on the heaviest totals. Our upcoming weather pattern looks to feel closer to spring than winter with the next storm system arriving this weekend and looking to produce mostly rain.

For Des Moines, the high temperature on Wednesday barely breached freezing. On the same day last year, the high temperature was in the 70s! The featured chart presents the difference in high temperature each day this year from last. An even larger difference appears on the 31rst where the high was only 15 this year and 61 last year! March 2012 experienced epic warmth, so more very large differences should be expected.

The featured map presents reported snowfall totals for the winter season to date from the NWS. Values in Iowa range from around two feet in western Iowa to four feet for Dubuque. The pattern is not that simple tho as locations like Mason City and Davenport have missed out on events in their areas. Will this be it for snowfall this year? A series of storm systems will affect the area this weekend with rain changing over to snow on Sunday. It does look to be a mostly rain event.

Our most recent winter storm system is winding down this morning after dumping around a foot of snow over northwestern Iowa. The weekend storm systems also brought much needed rainfall to the state with rainfall totals near an inch or more in many locations in the state. This moisture is very welcome and should help the drought situation in the state. This image will be regenerated later today after more observations come in.

That strange substance you see moving in area river beds is water! This past weekend of rain and now melting snow have increased stream flows. The featured chart presents measured water flow for Squaw Creek in Ames since mid 2010. Only briefly in early August 2012 was there more water flowing than now in roughly the past two years. Some locations in the state are even experiencing flooding!

After yet another snow storm and a day of blowing snow, many are hoping for spring! Has spring already come? The featured map presents the date that ends the coldest 91 day (one fourth of the year) period of the year based on NCDC climatology. If you use this metric to consider when "spring starts", the general pattern is for spring to arrive first over the west and progress eastward. Iowa's start date is shown to be the last week of February which means we are about on week three of spring already! Perhaps this is why spring seems so short as we go from winter into summer as snow storms are very common in Iowa for March, which is a spring month.

Yesterday's feature presented the end date of the coldest 91 day period of the year as a proxy for when spring starts. This was based on the daily climatology. The featured chart today looks at this metric in more depth. The top panel displays the past four years worth of trailing 91 day average temperature with the peak and trough labeled. The middle panel displays the yearly date of this minimum in 91 day trailing average (denoting the coldest 91 day period for the year). The bottom panel crudely displays the number of days during the "spring season, which is the number of days between the trough and peak minus 91 assumed days for the summer. So for this year and this metric, spring started on the 9th of March. The middle panel shows that this metric has not made it past the Ides of March since 1960! The bottom panel would indicate that our recent decade of spring seasons have been on the short side of long term trend.

Warm air finally returned to the state on Thursday with the high temperature exceeding 50 degrees in Des Moines for the first time since 13 February. The featured chart displays the streak of days with a high temperature below 50 degrees and the date on which the streak ended. The black dots are streaks that happened this winter season and the red dots are for last winter. April 1 appears to be a boundary that long term streaks are unable to cross. The reason is that eventually increasing solar angle and warm air advection from south will destroy any snowpack that exists in March and help to push temperatures into the 50s. Another relatively warm day is in store today before colder weather returns.

Blizzard Warnings are in effect over far northern Iowa for Monday thanks to a quick moving storm system that will dump snow and then blow it around a bunch. Are blizzard warnings common as we are mere days from spring? The featured chart attempts to provide a climatology of blizzard warnings in the continental US by week of the year. The unit is the combination of a single NWS weather forecast office issuing a blizzard warning for a given week of the year. For example, the peak value in late December represents, on average, seven NWS offices issuing at least one blizzard warning per year. The chart shows a remarkable drop during the heart of winter in January. The reason for this drop is that blizzard systems are driven by large temperature gradients and amble supplies of moisture, both of which are somewhat limited in January as most the country is at its coldest.

Even with some sunshine and southeasterly winds, high temperatures on Sunday struggled to reach 40, which is well below our average for this time of year. Is it common to have this situation of southeasterly winds with mostly sunny skies and yet fail to reach climatological average temperature? The featured chart attempts to answer that question. The individual frequencies of southeasterly winds or mostly clear skies leading to well below average temperature is around 20%. Having both is much less frequent at around one in twenty events. Today will be another cold day for mid March with a snow storm producing blizzard warnings in far northern Iowa.

The number of winter storms have come at a frantic pace recently with our latest bout of winter only dropping a few inches of snow, but also produced a lot of wind to blow that snow around. The heaviest totals were in the Dubuque area around three inches. The next big winter storm looks to mostly miss us to the south! The cold air is going to stick around in the interim.

2012 has been on the snowier side of average for Des Moines with around 45 total inches reported. This snow has fallen from a total of around 15 snowfall events (assuming back to back days with snow are one event and not counting trace daily totals). The featured chart displays the yearly combination of total snowfall and number of events. The year shown denotes the year of the first half of the winter season. Of the past 10 years, 5 of them are labelled as on the extremes of this chart. It does not appear that we are done adding to the totals shown in this chart with another potential snow storm for Iowa this coming weekend.

Yesterday was the official start of spring with the solar equinox, but did not feel like it as most of the state failed to rise above the freezing temperature mark. The featured chart displays the high temperature for the first day of spring each year for Ames. Only four other years were as cold as yesterday with the most recent year being in 1965. The bottom chart shows the year over year change with this year's change only rivaled by 1911-1912. The cold weather looks to stick around for the at least the next week with highs struggling in the 30s.

During March of 2012, it was no problem for our temperatures to reach the 80s. During March of 2013, getting out of the 30s and 40s has been a struggle for most of Iowa. The featured chart presents the maximum temperature each March for Waterloo. The warmest temperature so far has only been 42 degrees. If this holds, it would easily be the coldest maximum temperature for Waterloo since 1893. The stacked bars represent the highest temperature prior to 22 March and then for the entire month. 1960 and 1962 had a colder temperature to date, but highs were warmer later in the month. 1962 was even able to reach the upper 60s after such a cold start. The forecast, at this point, does not provide hope for a similar event happening this year.

The Des Moines NEXRAD captured a fun phenomena of birds vacating an area in all directions forming a circle on RADAR. The featured image is from 11:50 AM this Saturday morning and the center of the circle appears to indicate the birds were staying at the Hendrickson Marsh Lake near Collins, IA.

Our latest bout with winter dumped the heaviest snowfall totals in Iowa over the southeastern portion of the state. Iowa missed out on the foot plus snowfall accumulations near Saint Louis. The snow is causing travel headaches this Monday morning as temperatures are cold enough for roadways to freeze. It will not take long this morning for roads to start clearing up as even though there are clouds, energy from the sun is still able to reach the pavement surface and warm it above freezing.

Our most recent snow storm stopped producing snow for most of the state on Sunday making for the one of the few snowless Mondays in the past two months. The featured chart displays the number of hours that the Des Moines Airport sensor reported falling snow for each day since the first of the year. Monday and Tuesday have been quite active and this week should be the first week since late January without snow on both days. Our next storm system looks to be produce mostly rain, but there is still plenty of time for another snow storm.

Daily high temperatures have been a struggle in March for Iowa. The featured map displays the number of days since the last day with an above average high temperature. For some locations like Waterloo, it has been over a month! Temperatures have been warming this week and there is some hope for highs to reach the 50s before cooling off again next week. If Waterloo were to finish the month with every day below average for high temperature, it would be the first such occurrence for the site since March of 1960.

The maximum temperature reported so far this year ranges from 45 over northern Iowa to 70 over southern Iowa. The snow pack has been the most extensive and persistent over northern Iowa helping to keep temperatures cooler there. The forecast continues our slow moderation this week, but colder weather will return for the start of April.

High temperatures on Thursday were much closer to average than they have been recently. Many locations in the state have been below average since the start of spring last week. The featured chart presents the streak of days with a high temperature below average when the first day of spring was also below average for Waterloo. Years without a bar would indicate the first day of spring was above average for high temperature. For Waterloo, the streak this year is the longest since 1965, but should end today with highs expected in the mid 50s.