Past IEM Features tagged: ragbrai

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Last week's RAGBRAI

29 Jul 2014 05:40 AM
The featured chart presents the average weather during the week of RAGBRAI as approximated by the weather reported at the Des Moines Airport. RAGBRAI is an annual bike trip from west to east across Iowa. There were a few warm days this year, but not as bad as it has recently been a few years ago as shown by the top panel with average heat index during the daylight hours displayed. The bottom panel shows the average east - west wind speed as an approximation to the amount of head or tail wind bikers would have experienced. Either this week or two weeks ago would have been much cooler than the previous week, but too late now to move the ride!

Voting:
Good: 14
Bad: 5
Abstain: 7

Tags:   ragbrai  

Second Warmest RAGBRAI

03 Aug 2011 05:57 AM
The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) took place last week and was a quite warm for participants. This 7 day long trek across Iowa starts on the Missouri River and ends on the Mississippi River. Assuming that the weather reported by the Des Moines station is representative of the state, the featured chart presents the average heat index and westerly wind for the six day period each year that RABGRAI occurred on since it started in 1973. This year's average heat index was second to 1999. The bottom chart looks at a simple average of the westerly wind component during daylight hours. A wind from the east (negative values) would mean a head wind for bicyclists generally heading from the west to east. Easterly winds are typically associated with cooler weather, so you can pick your poison or a headwind or hot weather!

Voting:
Good: 19
Bad: 11

Tags:   ragbrai   2011