IEM Daily Feature
Tuesday, 09 July 2019

Low Temps Above Average

Posted: 09 Jul 2019 05:34 AM

Using present day climatology based on period of record data, the featured chart presents the percentage of days each year that the daily low temperature was above average for Des Moines. The total for 2019 is only one of three recent years since the late 1990s that the total was below about 50%. The long term average total is shown and the observant reader may wonder why the long term average is 50%, but some number slightly above. It turns out that the distribution of low temperatures is not exactly symmetrical but has a longer tail to the cold side. This skews the arithmetic mean slightly lower than the median, which yields a slightly larger population to the high side of average.

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